Mirai Maiumi, Suzume, Haruna Neko, Moka Miyamoto & Arisu Endo vs. Nao Kakuta, Raku, Pom Harajuku, Mahiro Kiryu & Kaya Toribami
If you’re like me and don’t know anything about TJPW, this was quite the crash course. The girls got 12 minutes to get themselves over and it mostly worked. Speaking as a complete Tokyo Joshi newbie, I will say that the personalities were 100% on point, but some of the work was a bit light. Because of her recent appearance on a DDT show, I was only familiar with Maiumi and she was in a league of her own here. There was some real conviction behind everything she did. Weirdly enough, the debuting masked woman Toribami was a close #2 and already seemed light years ahead some of her more experienced colleagues. You’ll probably want to keep an eye on her. **1/2
Battle Royal
Participants: Antonio Honda, Masao Inoue, Yuna Manase, Makoto Oishi, Yusuke Okada, Shu Sakurai, Yuya Koroku, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Kazuki Hirata, Shuhei Taniguchi, Yuji Hino, Akitoshi Saito, Saki Akai, Mohammed Yone, Toru Owashi
Congratulations. Being a part of this Battle Royal means that you’ve made it in showbusiness. Look, I actually laughed a few times and was enthralled by Hirata’s entrance. Also, Yatsu coming out to the Back to the Future theme with his new bionic leg was absolutely incredible. The final showdown between alternate universe eye pokers Masao and Honda wrapped things up in poetic fashion.
Ken Ohka, Keisuke Ishii & Shota vs. Shuichiro Katsumura, Kouki Iwasaki & Yumehito Imanari
GanPro in the house, baby. Big Ken Ohka’s crew looked good, even if the match felt super rushed. Imanari did the thing where he just won’t stop screaming. I must ask: why? Everything else was fine though, especially the very cool ending stretch between crafty cradler Shota and polished kicker Iwasaki. Having Ganbare’s very unique announcer on deck to introduce the boys was a nice touch. **3/4
Yuki Iino & Toi Kojima vs. Junta Miyawaki & Kinya Okada
Here we are, out of the dark matches and right into very solid wrestling territory. Watching the young NOAH duo play the grumpy big leaguers against little Kojima was too much fun. The DDT rookie has been fine-tuning his chops in the past few months, but they’re still not quite there. Having gotten torn to shreds by the likes of Shiozaki and Marufuji, the NOAH kids understandably would NOT sell any of this shit and it made for a rad dynamic. They even worked a bit of a limb story that was paid off quite nicely when Junta decided to slap the lights out of Toi and break his arm for the finish. Bonus points for Iino’s new pink singlet. Big Yutaka Yoshie energy. ***
Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao vs. Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe vs. Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino – 3-Way Tag Match
Much better than the TJPW opener. This time around, the wrestling matched the gimmicks and energy. The girls had a fast-paced little number that wisely used the 3-way tropes and made Watanabe and Nakajima both look like stars. Watanabe stood out with her various strength spots (including a sweet Crazy MAX-style giant swing/dropkick combo with her partner) while wolf girl Nakajima stole the show with her speedy high-flying. That whole Steiner Bulldog sequence was so well put together. ***
Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Danshoku Dino & Super Sasadango Machine
Powerpoint presentations. Pantyhose comedy. Danshoku Dino in general. This was Sugiura-Gun’s fiercest challenge yet. Honestly, I’m convinced these dorks are the ones who asked for this match. *3/4
Masa Kitamiya vs. Hideki Okatani
The match barely lasted 3 minutes, but Okatani looked like a million bucks. Masa’s always been generous in the ring (sometimes to a fault) and he just let the DDT youngster run all over him for most of this. Following Okatani’s steady progress in the last year has been one of the joys of reviewing DDT shows, so seeing him deliver on the big stage felt pretty special. **1/2
Maki Itoh, Yuki Kamifuku & Marika Kobashi vs. Hikari Noa, Mizuki & Yuki Arai
Let me put my TJPW Expert hat back on for a minute to tell you that this was a lot of fun. Ito’s been on the receiving end of severe CULTURAL BACKLASH lately due to her AEW showcase and loud Twitter presence. People seem to be offended because she’s not a six-star wrestler or something. From the limited Maki Content I’ve been able to watch (including this match), I will hereby declare Maki Itoh as Good. Obviously, her charisma is her best asset but she also knows how to work within her limits and had some really fine wrestling with Yuki Arai. Also very much dug the sassy heeling from Kamiyu and Marika, who more than held their own throughout this pleasant sprint. ***1/4
Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara vs. Yoshinari Ogawa, HAYATA & Seiki Yoshioka
By the numbers NOAH juniors action, which is not necessarily a bad thing. By the numbers NOAH juniors action is still tighter than most OTHER KINDS of action. They did a Greatest Hits version of what this crew does best: Stinger with the Southern heel leg work, Ohara playing babyface in peril and sneaking in some nifty backbreaker comebacks, Yoshioka/Harada just going insanely fast with the cutting-edge counter wrasslin’ and Kotoge doing the Red Bull-fueled lariats in the corner. Plus, Momo No Seishun all looked adorable in their big match white gear. Yes. ***
Chris Brookes, Shunma Katsumata & MAO vs. Daisuke Sasaki, Tetsuya Endo & Soma Takao
Aw man, this ruled. Just a really cool encapsulation of the DDT non-comedy house style – all creativity and colorful personalities. MAO and Endo have some next-level Cirque du Soleil chemistry and they were completely unafraid to show it off here. If you like your flips and assorted capoeira shenanigans – they are your guys. Shunma got in all of his underdog babyface shtick (‘’NEPPOWER!’’, ‘’Katsumata, Ganbare!’’ etc.) and got his ass kicked like only he can. The post-hot tag section delivered some of the wildest dives on this card, namely MAO’s springboard BOX ATTACK and a mothefucksudfhsd SPRINGBOARD SHOOTING STAR from Endo! You know you need more of these lads. King of DDT is just around the corner, baby. ***1/2
Sanshiro Takagi, Akito, Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Sakaguchi, Naomi Yoshimura & Yukio Naya vs. Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya, Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke
Galaxy-brained ideological warfare that switched between comedy and stone-cold seriousness at all the right moments. Kenoh is not the guy that will give you six star matches all year long, but he excels at character work and his heel performance brought this thing to another level. Having grown up on Riki Choshu’s various interpromotional beefs, this Kongo/DDT story was tailor-made for him. Takagi and Sakaguchi filled out the other key roles – the DDT boss taking an ungodly amount of punishment for his team and Sakaguchi stepping up as the last line of defense against Kongo’s brutal assault. Perfect blend of big show spectacle and effective emotional manipulation. Also, jetbikes. ***3/4
Konosuke Takeshita & Yuki Ueno vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura
When this was announced, Jun Akiyama jokingly tweeted that it should main event over the KO-D and GHC title matches. He was right. Ueno is on a WOTY-type run, turning the DDT Universal title into one of the most reliable championships in wrestling. Meanwhile, Takeshita’s been converting every tag match opportunity into a workrate burner (see: him/MAO vs. Eruption and his Ultimate Tag League run with Shunma). Put these guys with two bright young wrestlers who’ve been searching for purpose in NOAH all year long and you end up with the very definition of a banger.
Historically, interpromotional matches in Japan have largely been about pure hatred. This was more about which team could outwrestle the other. Normally, I would lambast these boys for eschewing the hate-filled path, but the work was so absurdly tight that I simply cannot complain. They turned a match with zero stakes or titles on the line into pure excitement – something that made you straight up giddy about the future of Japanese wrestling. Everyone looked like the best version of themselves: four guys you should be following regularly in their respective promotions.
Takeshita clearly had a hand in some of the more creative parts of the layout and gelled seamlessly with the NOAH gang. Great power exchanges with Inamura (who has evolved into a HUMAN TIRE) and some seriously-clever chain wrestling with Kaito. Best boy Ueno was the emotional core of the match, first playing babyface in peril against Inamura and then pulling the best ending stretch out of Kiyomiya in ages. That slappy outburst really brought something out of Kaito – the moody supernova managing to make himself look great in defeat. Just, wow. This might be a complicated request, but I need these four to wrestle each other much more frequently. ****1/4
Miyu Yamashita © vs. Yuka Sakazaki – Princess of Princess Title
Here’s a match that started great, completely lost me in the middle and then ended on a high note. Miyu’s badass entrance and the snug matwork that kicked things off felt completely unlike anything we’d seen from TJPW on the rest of the card. Gone were the cutesy vibes – these two had themselves god damn title match.
Now, this might come off as sacrilegious to Tokyo Joshi regulars, but the mid-match dynamic seemed weirdly unnatural to me. Yuka has such obvious babyface appeal and Miyu has such a clear badass heelish aura that I was puzzled by them going in the exact opposite direction. After some awkward spots that didn’t quite land, things picked up big time with a forearm duel for the ages. They hit the finish line with intensity, fighting spirit and high-quality striking, leaving their mark on this show via a spin kick from Miyu has to be seen to be believed. ***1/2
Jun Akiyama © vs. HARASHIMA – KO-D Openweight Title
More rock-solid title match wrasslin’ from two old pros. I dug how well defined the match was early on – HARASHIMA starting off hot with his signature stomach destruction, Akiyama responding in kind by ripping apart his neck. Both guys went on long, sustained stretches of offense where things looked like they hurt and were sold accordingly. With Akiyama, the devil is always in the details. See: him turning a basic-ass figure 4 necklock into a compelling submission, or his trash talk in the corner later on. Great shit.
The back end of the match mostly hit the right notes, but lacked the hooks of Uncle Jun’s defenses against Higuchi and Endo. Akiyama’s way of putting HARASHIMA over was to let him kick out of a lot of stuff. In very straight forward fashion. Not the most imaginative ending stretch ever, even if it did score some good clapping heat. Everything before the kickout overload was gravy. ***3/4
Keiji Muto © vs. Naomichi Marufuji – GHC Heavyweight Title
Like most of the Muto reign, this wasn’t for me. They did the 2021 Muto long match layout with 2021 Marufuji tropes and it made for a whole lot of 2021 wrestling I don’t care much about. To Muto’s credit, all the highlights of this Cyber Odyssey came from him. Obviously, the Moonsault miracle was a proper moment, but he also pulled of some clever dragon screw variants I hadn’t seen before. Meanwhile, Maru tried to get some arm work subplot going to build up the Perfect keylock and it just felt super flat. I liked the idea of Muto causing his own demise with the Moonsault, but Marufuji’s comeback kick combo landing about 3 inches from Muto’s face just about killed any potential excitement. Gentlemen’s Three for the Moonsault. ***
