I don’t have many strong memories of Honori Hana’s first run. That’s not to say I don’t remember her, but the SEAdLINNNG rookie who stood out back then was Rico Kaiju, with Honori often sliding into the background. For the two and a bit years she was originally wrestling (most of which took place in the pandemic and only made up around 80 matches), she seemed destined to become a solid hand. Make no mistake about it, no one who comes out of a dojo run by Nanae Takahashi, Natsuki Taiyo, Arisa Nakajima and Yoshiko is going to stink the joint out, but I don’t remember there ever being a moment when I saw something big in her.
Until that is, she went and laid a headbutt on Yumiko Hotta. We’re not talking about a nice, safe, protected pat to the head, either. No, we’re talking about one that caused Hotta’s forehead to almost instantly swell up, turning an ugly shade of red in the process. Hotta is a scary woman. I’ve seen her no-sell more experienced wrestlers than Hana before stamping on their heads, but here was this returning young wrestler laying one on her. I thought she was brave with the slaps that preceded it! There is a chance the headbutt was moving into stupidity.
Yet, I loved it. I loved it as an act of defiance. We’ve seen a million of these matches before. We know how they go. Sure, the veterans sometimes allow those further down the ladder the chance to show a bit of fire, maybe catch them off guard for a second, but it’s always cut off before it goes too far. Hotta doesn’t love to sell at the best of times, and when those initial slaps were raining down on her, she stood and took them all, barely flinching. She couldn’t do that for the headbutt, though. It forced her to reel back, caught off-guard and shocked at how hot this kid had come in. For the rest of the match, her hand continually strayed to her forehead, and she even used the aftermath to seek sympathy from Jag, complaining at how hard Hana had hit her. It might be a small victory, but against someone like Hotta, just getting a reaction means something.
Even more importantly, it feels like Hana is tapping into something that perhaps wasn’t there in her first run (or at least, if it was, I can’t remember it). I enjoyed the hell out of her vs Misa Kagura on the January SEAd show, and this moment had a similar energy. She’s charging into things headfirst (literally), and while that has its downsides, it’s damn exciting to see. There’s a physicality and a grit to her wrestling that makes it hard to ignore her, and honestly, people need that shit. Your Jags and Hottas are very capable of taking it easy in these matches, especially when their opponents do nothing to challenge them. Hotta has sleepwalked through countless tags, but there was none of that here, and while the rest of the action was a bit sloppy (Jag had a weird off day), it wasn’t because they were taking it easy. With one headbutt, Honori Hana made the legend care, and that was the real victory.
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