Before jetting off to Hokkaido for the weekend, Marvelous had a birthday party to throw as Mio Momono turned 26. The best wrestler in the world deserves the biggest party possible, but if money is tight, a fun day out at Shinkiba isn’t an awful second choice. Besides, it’s Mio – if you let her wrestle, she’s happy. Let’s see if she got what she wanted.
Riko Kawahata defeated Brooke Havok
While Marvelous bringing a load of wrestlers over from America is no bad thing, I wonder if it makes it more difficult for the talent in question. Before, you’d maybe have one or two foreigners around at a time, which made it easy for the fans to grow attached to them. Now, with a rotating cast popping over for short jaunts, it’s much harder to make an impact. Where someone like Sandra Moone was able to build a connection with the fanbase, it was noticeable how quiet they were during Brooke’s moments in this match. I didn’t get the impression they disliked her. It felt more like a lack of connection rather than a rejected one.
None of which is necessarily her fault, but it is not aided by her falling a tad short between the ropes. My general impression of her so far is one of competence rather than greatness, and while this was a step up from her showing with Maria, it continued here. I think that improvement came from Riko taking control of the action, battering away at Havok with those kicks. It meant the onus wasn’t on her to fill time, as she was left free to focus on her comebacks. Sadly, they still didn’t exactly sparkle. I hope it makes sense when I say it feels like she’s pretending to be a wrestler. The best around learn to react, bouncing off what has happened naturally. Havok looks like she’s remembering her lines, hitting her spots and waiting for her moment to do whatever comes next.
It didn’t help that the finish got muddled, Brooke struggling to get Riko up before a messy roll-up earned a three that looked like it might have been a two. I’m not quite sure what went wrong and where, but it was a disappointing end to a showing that continued Havok’s streak of fine rather than great performances. I don’t want to be too harsh on her (she’s young in her career, and there is plenty of improvement to come), but she’s yet to do anything that blows me away. Riko was good, though!
Verdict: Flawed, But Had Moments
Leo Isaka defeated Ai Houzan
Chigusa Nagayo has committed to being the biggest fan of Marvelous’s youngest roster member. On the show before this, she roundly booed her Ace, Takumi Iroha, when she was mean to Ai Houzan, but at least then she waited for the match to start. This time, she was booing Leo during his entrance, turning the fans against him before he’d even had a chance to be a dick. There’s a real sense that the Marvelous roster is rooting for Ai to break through, which is true of Chig more than anyone else (and is hopefully a sign that her moment is coming).
That feeling is aided by Ai being on a hot streak right now. Sure, she’s still not winning, but her recent performances have been strong. From booting Leo in the shin to unleashing a Momono-inspired flurry of headbutts (she combined Pom and Mio – it’s like my favourite wrestler ever), she leaned heavily on her scrappy nature. While Ai was outmuscled at every turn and was never going to win, she convinced me she didn’t know that. It’s a point I’ve made before, but if someone can do that, I’m willing to forget what I know about booking and go with them. Plus, Leo seemed to be enjoying the chance to be a dick. He’s usually battling from underneath, so it was fun to see him drink in his boss’s booing.
If you follow Houzan on Twitter, you might have picked up on the idea that she has confidence issues. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but on a roster full of boisterous characters, Ai is quieter and more self-reflective. She often seems to be beating herself up over mistakes, which is a relatable trait. It makes me want her to succeed, and while I don’t know if she’ll ever get to the top of the card, her battling, underdog fire is easy to get behind. I’ve said it before, but she’s ready to get her big break, and I hope she’s on the cusp of it happening sooner rather than later.
Verdict: Good Fun
Chikayo Nagashima defeated ChiChi
With the threat of her Barbie Showdown with ChiChi hanging over her head, Chigusa Nagayo was very pro-Nagashima here. You’d think the owner of the company would be better at hiding these things, but she makes no attempt to do so, and I wouldn’t have her any other way. I’m not sure anyone enjoys Marvelous shows more than Chig does. Besides, they’ve started putting together her Barbie outfit – so ChiChi will have the last laugh.
Sadly, for all the fun Chig was having, the actual action dragged a bit. Nagashima was in the bully role, which she usually excels at, but you got the impression she wasn’t trying all that hard. It was all a bit plodding, as despite only being twelve minutes and change, it felt like it needed a few of those shaved off. While ChiChi is a sympathetic foil in a tag, she doesn’t quite have enough to fill a singles match of this nature. We got good moments like her firing up to hit an exploder or getting revenge for Nagashima trapping her foot in the rope by doing the same to her, but they were isolated rather than sustained.
Throw in the fans never quite warming up to it, and it joined the opener in being fine. I was never angry at it, and ChiChi did what was asked of her, but it never came together to be anything special, despite a killer double stomp from Nagashima for the win. They’ll both have much better matches down the road (possibly even with each other), so this is one you can skip.
Verdict: Bit Flat
We got a musical performance from Saori Nonoka next, who I’ve never heard of but has a nice voice. Of course, it ended with Chig getting involved, as they did a duet of some Crush Gals with Mio and Riko providing additional dancing. It was great, and you could tell Nonoka was having a blast. She seemed to be about the right age to be a Crush fan.
Unagi Sayaka defeated Maria and Tomoko Watanabe in a three-way
Tomoko Watanabe does not get the credit she deserves for how funny she is. Unagi and Maria opened this three-way with eyes only for each other, ignoring Tomoko completely. In response, she ran the ropes a bit, pausing only to offer encouragement, booted Unagi up the arse and slapped Maria round the head, all of which eventually forced them to acknowledge her existence. It’s a fairly standard way to open a more light-hearted three-way, but Watanabe responds to it better than nearly anyone, and I love watching her attempts to get these bratty kids to remember she exists.
Plus, when the time comes, she’ll throw a lariat like a motherfucker. If anything, Unagi and Maria could learn from her. They’ve been at each other’s throats for months, and this match was partly setting up The Eel’s challenge for the tag titles in Hokkaido, but that dislike doesn’t always bleed into their wrestling. Everything around it screams hatred, but when it comes time to fight, it falls short. It’s all too clean and thought-out to actually sell dislike. That’s a repeating theme with Unagi’s more serious work (her comedy is generally excellent), and I wished I loved her wrestling half as much as I admire everything else she does.
Still, there wasn’t anything actually bad here. It just struggled to click with me. Outside of Tomoko making me laugh, most of it breezed by, barely registering with me as I only made a handful of notes. Maria did mention on Twitter afterwards that she’d gone to hospital afterwards, so she might have taken Unagi’s finisher badly, but it wasn’t immediately noticeable during the action. Either way, she said she was fine and wrestled twice over the weekend, so there was nothing to worry about. The same can be said of this match, which existed but left no permanent mark on me.
Verdict: Meh
Mio Momono, Titus Alexander & El Cucuy defeated Takumi Iroha, Jiah Jewell & Starboy Charlie
Mio was drunk with power. Not only did she have a couple of big pals flanking her, but she’d kitted them out with cutesy balloons and had her picture in their entrance video grow until she was bigger than the two of them. With her sunglasses on and ‘Born To Be Wild’ blaring from the speakers, she made her way to the ring perched on their shoulders, looking down on the world around her. Then, when she got there, she started changing the match, demanding they remove the time limit and introduce lucha tag rules before telling Takumi to translate it for the English speakers and laughing at her attempts. It’s a good thing her birthday only comes around once a year.
Thankfully, if you build your action around Mio Momono, I will enjoy it. This was a blast. When she wasn’t bossing people around, Mio was great, giving us a tiny snippet of her vs Takumi but mainly focusing on pissing about. Her interactions with Jiah Jewell were particularly fun, as she ended up negating the size difference by repeatedly hitting him in the balls, a tactic that was, unsurprisingly, quite effective. He’s fully won me over, by the way. Having made no impact on me the first time I watched him, he’s now up with Titus at the top of my rankings of the foreign men. Making me laugh will get you far.
Although I think everyone was good here. Takumi kicking Cucuy down to size was a cool visual, as was the big lad getting a chance to throw Starboy Charlie around again. Even the final firework show between Titus and Charlie was good, never slipping too far into American indie bullshit and featuring a genuinely brutal-looking running knee from Alexander. I really need to seek out more of his work. His tours with Marvelous have all been impressive, and he gets the vibes, which means he’s earned some of my time. He’s also got himself a match with Daisuke Sekimoto, which Chig announced as a present afterwards.
It was the perfect way to celebrate Mio’s birthday, including the cake she was surprised with post-match. They delivered a fast-paced, fun slice of action that brought every element of the ridiculousness that is Momono to the table. She’s the best in the world, and no one else gets close to touching her, so if she wants to celebrate her birthday by putting on some sunglasses and bossing people around, let her. She’s earned it.
Verdict: A Lovely Time Was Had
Overall Show
A lot of this show was skippable. You’ve got the main event and Ai vs Leo as things that I’d tell people to make an effort to see, but apart from that, it was all fine to decent. While none of it will piss you off or leave you feeling like you’ve wasted your time, there is a lot of wrestling out there, so it’s only my fellow completists that need to check this stuff out.
Marvelous have a Nico channel where you can watch older shows and a YouTube Membership where they upload videos. You can also buy access to live streams here.
Ramblings About Wrestling 
Leave a comment