Sendai Girls The Top of Joshi Wrestling (19/3/25) Review

Not many wrestlers can claim to be unbeaten against Meiko Satomura one-on-one, but Chihiro Hashimoto has the honour. With Satomura’s retirement on the horizon, they butted heads one last time. Would Meiko end her career by finally getting one over her prized pupil? Well, this show happened several days ago, so I imagine you already know, but hey, let’s keep the non-existent tension going.

Maria defeated Manami

One of the only good things to emerge from Mio Momono’s injury is that Maria appears to have stepped up to fulfil a lot of her Sendai bookings. Post-pandemic, she has largely stuck to Marvelous, which is a real shame. Her pairing with Riko Kawahata has seen her develop substantially as a wrestler. She has become more rounded, bringing together that touch of bratty attitude with her propensity for twisty submissions. We saw a bit of both here as she rolled back to wrap herself around a Manami who thought she was safe to relax before stomping on her head against the ropes.

Unfortunately, this match was let down by a lack of time. Sendai gave them five minutes, which might have worked if it had been Yuna across from Maria, but it felt like it short changed the also vastly improved Manami. That’s even more true when you factor in the winning move being a simple dropkick. I will give Maria credit for working for the pin, something the Marvelous lot have been doing more in the aftermath of Ai and Senka’s shoot-falls match, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the missed opportunity. While I suspect these two have a decent showing in them, they needed a bit more space to make that happen.

Verdict: More Time, Please

Veny, Yuu, Lena Kross & Nina Samuels defeated ZONES, Yuna, Yura Suzuki & Honoka

We had double the time here, but this match suffered from not having a reason to exist. It’s perhaps a harsh criticism, and I do understand not every company can have a sizeable roster, but this made me appreciate the TJPW undercard. The most randomly thrown-together Tokyo Joshi tag is still propped up by years of relationships that have naturally developed out of people appearing in the ring together time after time. This felt like somewhere to shove everyone that didn’t have anything else to do.

And that can be fun. I enjoy watching Veny slap rookies around as much as the next person. Credit also goes to ZONES, who I had to remind myself is, in fact, still in the rookie bracket. She has an aura that I don’t think you can teach, and while part of that is the muscles, it’s also in the way she holds and presents herself. I’d already buy her as a serious challenger to almost anyone, and I wouldn’t say that about her partners. On the downside, Yuna either needs to stiffen up those elbows or stop throwing so many of them. Veny no-selling her hammering away on her chest didn’t feel like the act of a smug veteran because they didn’t look like they particularly hurt. Although I did enjoy her run of offence against Yuu.

Despite all my moaning, this was perfectly serviceable. I like all the rookies here, and we got to see Yuu do the Big Roll, so I won’t be aggressively defending my complaints. It just lacked the sparkle of magic that makes a match worth remembering. That’s fine, though. Most wrestling does.

Verdict: It Happened

Jaguar Yokota defeated Shin Sakura Hirota

It occurred to me the other day that it has probably been a real boon to the joshi scene that Hirota has been around for the last few decades to prick the egos of its biggest wrestlers. She doesn’t care if it’s Akira Hokuto, Meiko Satomura or Jaguar Yokota, she will take the piss. I’m not suggesting they’d all be monsters without her, and they’ve all certainly had moments of taking themselves too seriously, but having wrestling’s jester there to remind them they’re human can’t have been a bad thing, right? Anyway, I have no way to verify this theory, so I may well be talking nonsense, but it’s a nice idea.

I’m focusing on my random musings because I don’t really feel the need to ramble too much about Hirota’s Sendai efforts these days. You know what you’re getting, don’t you? This one has the slight delight of Jag being the person across the ring from her, but even that feels like it’s one of the running themes of her comedy. Hirota vs someone who is a bit grumpy isn’t new. To be clear, this isn’t a criticism, either. I fucking love these matches. If Hirota is reeling out the same jokes twenty years from now, I’ll still be laughing, but unless you’re new here (if so, welcome), you already know your feelings about it. You either also think it’s hilarious, or you’re a cunt.

Verdict: You Know The Deal

Aja Kong, Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue defeated Ryo Mizunami, Chikayo Nagashima & Yurika Oka

Whenever I think my affection for Yurika Oka has peaked, she finds another way to top it up. I thought she couldn’t improve on Mystic Young Fox! Her commitment to representing Mio Momono while she’s injured is what’s currently earning my love. She’s determined to make sure no one forgets her tag team partner, and while I think that was unlikely to happen, I appreciate the effort. I also believe everyone should be thinking about Mio more. She’s the best.

It helps that she’s becoming a great wrestler. Every time Oka tagged into this match, the energy levels went up, as she brought an exuberance that even Aniki struggled to match. She was rewarded for it, too. Aja Kong bestowed the full touch of respect on her here, by which I mean she bumped once or twice, let her kick out of the backdrop driver and then pinned her with a top rope elbow rather than one from the second. This stuff means something! That’s the kind of thing Kong usually reserves for TJPW wrestlers.

Jokes aside, it was another match that mainly hit the beats you’d expect, with only Aja’s touch of generosity moving outside of them. Aniki succeeded in drawing Kyoko into something of a hoss battle, and no one was completely phoning it in, but they also weren’t breaking their backs. The Inoues, Aja, and even, to a certain extent, Aniki and Chikayo know they’re here to be special attractions, not to steal the show, so they deliver as such. Only Oka had something to gain from this match, and, fair play to her, she grabbed as much of it as she could. She’s a weird banana, but she’s a talented one.

Verdict: Oka Grabs Some Attention

DASH Chisako defeated Risa Sera in a hardcore match

Thanks to a string of fun single matches and her tag work opposite Bobubobu Momo Banana, DASH Chisako is one of the forerunners for my wrestler of the year. To the surprise of no one, messing around with Risa Sera and a bunch of weapons only added to that case. These DASH hardcore matches have become a staple of big Sendai shows and rarely fail to deliver.

If you were being harsh, you could accuse them of being predictable. You know, at some point, DASH is going to go from a ladder in the ring to a table on the outside (Risa tipped her off said ladder to go crashing through said table), and there will be a bunch of chairs to be slammed and splashed onto. Chisako has her staples, and within the limits of a standard hardcore match (rather than something a bit more death-fuelled), Risa seemed happy to go along with them. However, certain hits are always worth playing, and when they’re as cool as the stuff DASH does, it’s hard to complain. Plus, it’s not like this stuff loses its impact. It’s always going to hurt.

Besides, when 90% of people look back on this match, they’re not going to remember all the stuff they’ve seen before. They’re going to be thinking about the DASH splash off the lighting rig, and that’s, in some ways, the beauty of this shit. If you deliver that one memorable spot, the rest of it will fade into the background. That’s not a criticism of the workers, either. They still worked their arses off, and as I already said, the other stuff is fun. It that’s moment in the lights that will generate a thousand pictures and GIFs, and make sure your match won’t be forgotten any time soon, though. DASH and Risa achieved that, and they did it while also delivering a hard-hitting and entertaining brawl. That prestigious Ramblings About Wrestler of the Year award could still be in DASH’s future (there is no actual award).

Verdict: They’re Good Hits And The New Song Was Decent, Too

Aya Sakura defeated Chi Chi to win the Sendai Junior Title

I can’t make my usual joke about Stardom wrestlers being better in other promotions because I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever seen Aya Sakura wrestle in Stardom. Truthfully, I can’t remember if I’ve seen her wrestle anywhere.

Perhaps it was a lack of imagination on my part, but when Barbie enthusiast Chi Chi debuted, I would never have predicted her becoming quite this hard-hitting. It didn’t take long for this match to become about Sakura and Chi Chi kicking each other, and they did a damn good job of it. Okay, not every kick landed flush, and there was a bit of “you kick me, I’ll kick you” to it, but, for the most part, these two were laying it in. It was the first match on this show that felt like it had some weight behind it, as there was a frisson of tension to the whole thing. I’m oblivious to their history, but I could tell it was there.

The same goes for the finish, which was clearly a big payoff for Sakura that was never going to hit as hard for me. Sure, better wrestlers might have been able to draw me in regardless, but these two are young in their careers, and that is a harsh criticism to throw at them. As it was, this was a heated, well-worked wee match that didn’t do anything revolutionary but left me wanting to see more of these two together, which, for two wrestlers still learning the ropes, counts as a job well done.

Verdict: I’m Still Not Watching Stardom

Red Energy (Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase) defeated Maika & Hanako to retain the Sendai Girls Tag Titles

Ah, it’s nice to see some Stardom folk do some proper wrestling (I knew I’d get to it eventually). I have seen a touch of Hanako before, but nowhere near enough to have an opinion more well-rounded than tall. Maika, meanwhile, had the honour of being in the same lift as me after a Fighting Detectives show in Tokyo. She spent the journey staring at the wall in what I assume was an attempt not to be recognised. Of course, the fact that one person in the lift was standing in the corner staring at the wall only made me wonder what the hell they were doing, at which point I realised it was her. Not that I bothered her. I think it’s important to let wrestlers stare at walls without being interrupted.

Anyway, the match. It was fine. I was relatively impressed by Hanako, who has figured out that (thanks to the whole being big thing) she doesn’t have to do anything complicated. One of my pet peeves about the last decade or so of wrestling was the shift to powerhouses feeling the need to prove they can do cruiserweight spots, but we seem to finally be reversing that trend. My favourite moments in this all revolved around Iwata and Takase trying to overcome their giant opponent. Honestly, she probably should have sold for them a bit less. Make them work to take you down!

As for the Maika stuff, it was all decent, but there wasn’t any great chemistry there. While I haven’t watched much of her recently, everyone seems to have been high on her work, but the grit was missing from this match. Maybe she was taking it easy outside of her home promotion, but I wanted there to be a bit more hate behind her interactions with Red Energy. Instead, it was what you’d expect a run-of-the-mill title defence between three good pros and a promising rookie to look like that. While there was some perfectly decent wrestling, I know that most of the people in this match are capable of more than that.

Verdict: It Was Alright

Chihiro Hashimoto defeated Meiko Satomura to win the Sendai Girls World Title

I still don’t really believe that Meiko Satomura is retiring. Seeing her wrestle Chris Brookes in Fight Club Pro was my first introduction to joshi outside of some canon classics, and it’s safe to say I developed something of a taste for it. She’s been a constant fixture of my wrestling watching for years (apart from the period when she decided to hang out with some wrong’uns in a warehouse in England, but we won’t talk about that), and it’s hard to imagine it without her. She feels permanent. Like a castle that has been part of the landscape for so long that it’s become part of it. Except this castle can also beat you up.

And obviously, Meiko’s a great wrestler. Those kicks are still on point thirty years in, and while she’s coming to the end of her career, it’s not a decision that’s been influenced by an inability to perform. However, Satomura is so much more than that. She possesses an iron-forged determination that radiates off her in waves. It’s been there since she was a slightly self-serious rookie, and age has only hardened it. Believing in Meiko is easy because you never doubt that she has 100% conviction in everything she does. There were a couple of moments early in this match when she shrugged off Hash’s offence in order to keep control, and while in another’s hands, it might have felt egregious, I never questioned it for a second. Part of that is the years of watching Satomura, but it’s also that I trust she has the willpower to fight through any pain. It’s there in her face.

Which makes it even more impressive that Hashimoto still felt like a monster. 99% of other wrestlers would be diminished by the legendary force of nature across from them, but not Big Hash. She was a stampede building momentum, and so much of Satomura’s performance was built on trying to cut her down before she could get up to full speed. It’s no secret that Hashimoto is Meiko’s favourite student, and there is a reason for that. She can do it all. From the grappling to the bomb-throwing, there are few wrestlers on her level. She doesn’t wilt from the challenge of someone like Satomura but grows into it, becoming bigger and more powerful as the action goes on.

Together, they made sure this whole match felt like a struggle, a struggle to take and maintain control. Satomura wrestled like someone who knew the longer this went, the less chance she had of being able to slay her star pupil, and that played out in the finish. Meiko unleashed the big guns on Hashimoto, hitting a Death Valley Bomb, but when Hash swatted them away, she was out. Chihiro’s arsenal was bigger, and when she connected with it, there was no chance that Meiko would survive. The final match between the teacher and the student went the same way the other three went, with Big Hash getting one last Satomura seal of approval before she rides into the sunset. Few deserve it more, but I wish Meiko was sticking around a bit longer to see if anyone else could earn it.

Verdict: Brilliant

Overall Show

The first half of this show felt very disposable. Even as someone who isn’t a cunt, you wouldn’t be missing a whole lot if you started your viewing from Sera vs DASH. The main event is the real story here, though. We’ve got very little Satomura left, so we need to prize every second we get. Watching her and Big Hash go at it is one of the best ways to do so.

You can watch Sendai Girls on Wrestle Universe: https://www.wrestle-universe.com/

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