Mei’s second title defence was the real test of her reign. Wrestling Miyuki Takase is easy. She rarely dips below a certain level and, with it taking place in a ring, you know what that match will look like. That’s not to suggest it wasn’t good or exciting – it was – but there was a comfort level there. Arguably, wrestling Sayaka in Ichigaya should be similar. It’s their home, and most of the sixty-plus times they’ve faced off before have taken place there. However, with that belt on the line, things change. We’ve never seen Sayaka in a high-profile one-on-one match before, and it’s always intriguing to see how someone adapts to that pressure.
Yet, even with that potential for the unexpected, I don’t think I would have predicted this. ChocoPro is not the place I would look for limb matches. They’ve happened. Mitsuru was more prone to it before she retired, and more than one person has gone after Sakura’s back, but it’s not the typical Choco style. However, that didn’t stop Mei from deciding the best way to avoid Sayaka’s thumping forearms was to destroy her arm. Suruga was brilliant here, focused and brutal, as she zeroed in on ripping that limb from its socket. It wasn’t just the holds or the wrenches, either. Even her dropkicks focused on Sayaka’s right arm.
The real revelation, however, was Sayaka. Selling a limb is hard. You don’t have to watch much wrestling to see that the vast majority struggle with it. Not Sayaka, it seems. I won’t claim it was perfect, but it was pretty damn great. She resisted the temptation to go over the top, instead sticking to shaking it out and grabbing at it after each passage of action. Even more impressively, her strikes began to lose their potency as Mei’s attack stripped the power from them. She was forced to resort to using her left arm instead, only returning to the right at a point in the match where you bought into the idea that it was adrenaline pushing her forward – that she was dealing with the pain because of the knowledge that it was now or never.
It added up to what has to go down as the best match of Sayaka’s career, certainly as a solo performance. I’ve said before that if she ever decided to focus purely on wrestling, she has the potential to be a monster, and this was more proof of that. With Chie currently busy with Popcorn Carnival, she’s the number two singles wrestler in the company, and this match left me dreaming of countless different pairings for her. At the very least, a big showdown with Miya feels like a slam dunk.
As for Suruga, her triumph here was perhaps less surprising but no less impressive. It was a different version of main event Mei. One that controlled the bulk of the action and got to be more aggressive on offence. At this point, it would be more surprising if she didn’t take to it with ease. Sayaka was the one I was talking about coming out of this, but Suruga laid the foundations for that performance, which is often the more difficult task. If she keeps this going, it will be a special title reign, and I won’t be the fool who bets against her doing so.
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