Takumi Iroha frustrates me. She has all the tools required to be an incredible Ace, but all too often, it feels like she’s holding back. It’s most evident in her tendency to slap her thigh rather than really punish people with those kicks, but it also shows elsewhere. She’s too cool (and protected) to convincingly play the underdog, but she also never seems to dominate people quite like I’d hope. I suspect it’s why my favourite matches of hers are often against other Marvelous wrestlers. Facing off with a Mio Momono or even an Ai Houzan, she feels comfortable enough to unleash. Yet, when you put her up against Mayumi Ozaki, setting her up to avenge Marvelous’s beatings, she doesn’t have the grit to make it feel definitive. Sadly for Sora Ayame, she had no such qualms when facing her.
This match was a beating. You might have already seen the pictures of Sora’s chest, but that only tells part of the story. It’s not just that Iroha peppered the rookie with stiff chops and kicks, but it was how she did it. She was dismissive and cruel, shrugging off everything Ayame threw at her. When the kid actually managed to block one of her chops, Iroha laughed, while her smidgen of offence wasn’t even given the respect of being treated like an irritant. Takumi just let her tire herself out by hammering away ineffectually on her chest.
That’s not to suggest that this match did nothing for Ayame. It’s the opposite. It’s very easy to tell that someone is taking a beating when their chest starts turning scary colours, but despite that onslaught, the rookie never stopped. Yes, her forearms and chops were more feathery than steely (I’m not even sure Iroha noticed a couple of them), but she managed to scramble her way into a couple of flash pins, earning a momentary twinge of worry from the Ace, and even reacted ingeniously to not being strong enough to drag Iroha from the top turnbuckle, hitting the ropes instead to knock her off=balance. There were hints of something special! With Senka proving she’s not only the golden girl but also a delightful weirdo, I was a bit worried Ayame would be forced into the background, but those flashes keep flaring up. She doesn’t have her peer’s confidence, but there is a wrestling brain in there that is starting to figure out how to put it all together.
It’s also all so Chigusa Nagayo. Sora may have donned the blue rather than the red, but as Iroha laid into her, it felt like you were watching two periods of Nagayo’s career. In Ayame, you have the young AJW underdog who got beaten from pillar to post by Dump Matsumoto and in Iroha, the grizzled bastard (affectionate) who loved to kick the shit out of rookies in GAEA. It’s hardly a revelation to point out that Marvelous is a company built in Chig’s image, but it was shining bright in this one, even if it was a simple, five-minute squash of a youngster. I’m not about to suggest Sora (or Senka) can reach the heights of Nagayo (very few ever have), but as the crowd cheered her on and she desperately fought back against her beating, she tapped into a slither of that magic. If that’s something she can keep doing, she’ll be just fine.
Marvelous have a Nico channel where you can watch older shows and a YouTube Membership where they (might) upload videos. You can also buy access to live streams here.
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