Watching this match, I couldn’t shut up the nagging question in the back of my mind: ‘Why don’t I love it?’ Two of the best joshi tag teams of recent years got fifteen minutes to clash heads in Shinjuku, and I wanted it to be incredible. Instead, it was good, maybe even great. While those descriptors typically aren’t an issue, they’re not what I pictured. Is it fair to expect the extraordinary? No, but I can’t pretend I didn’t.
It’s not the first time this has happened, either. In fact, it’s becoming a bit of a theme in 2024. Other so-called dream matches like Mayu Iwatani vs Sareee and Best Friends vs Eye Contact elicited the same response. They were all showdowns that, on paper, felt destined to be best-of-the-year contenders but never quite hit those heights. Now, with the announcement of Utami Hayashishita vs Iyo Sky, I’m already steeling myself for it to happen again (especially as I’m not the biggest Utami fan).
And I really do want to reinforce that this match was damn good. Pairing these teams up presents them both with something they rarely come across – an opponent they can’t bully. They’re used to being the hardest hitters in the ring, and this is the rare occasion when it was about even with control of the action swinging from side to side. Even at my grumpiest I can’t deny their ability to throw bombs, with the final minutes bringing a shot of urgency that had everything ramp up a notch or two. If you’re looking for a hard-hitting, beefy match with plenty of stuff that looked like it hurt, you’ll probably come away satisfied.
I’m painfully aware how selfish it is to expect more than that. At the end of the day, this was a second from the top showdown in Shinjuku Face between two teams who had never wrestled before. They’ve all faced off in other iterations (although Hash’s interactions with Tsukka and Arisa are sadly limited), but this is not a perfected act. It meant that much like the other matches I mentioned, they fell back on the route-one version, sticking to the basics they know will pop the crowd and send lots of people home happy. It worked, but there was always a sense that this could go deeper. They found gold, but if they’d had the time and the space, you could imagine them stumbling on something much more valuable.
All of which gets to the heart of my issues with everything. It was an outstanding first part of a trilogy – the fifteen-minute draw to set the bar they’re aiming to clear on their next go. The problem is, we know there won’t be a next go. Arisa is walking into the sunset, and unless something changes, I suspect this will be a one-and-done. It’s a problem that applies to all the matches I’ve mentioned. They’re special attractions, thrown out into the world to get some buzz and produce something great, but perhaps not something that survives the ravages of time. I’ll say it once more – this was a good match. It’s just that under different circumstances, with the chance to make it more than that, it could have been something special. Sadly, now we’ll probably never see that.
It still ruled, though.
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