Mio Momono vs Miyuki Takase vs Sakura Hirota
(WAVE 6/29/2021)
The
ruleset for this match was really cool. Basically it’s like a
gauntlet match where you just try to survive both opponents. It
starts as a 1 vs 1 match, the loser goes out, the winner stays in and
fights the next person, and the first to get two straight wins is the
winner. I don’t really like 3 ways so just doing them as a series
of singles matches with an overarching story is a win for me.
The
first match up is Momono vs. Takase. I haven’t seen Takase before
but she was a pleasant surprise. She doesn’t do any flimsy offense,
she focuses on the more solid stuff like snug clotheslines and she
has a really great leg drop. Momono is one of those really fast
moving modern day workers with endless cardio who can go really hard.
Thankfully she doesn’t do anything stupid either. The opening
goings are very fast moving without being too much. Joshi often has
the problem that they throw everything out right from the get go,
that wasn’t the case her as they start dodging moves, battling over
moves, eventually being able to take advantage and zone in on weak
spots. That
also avoided another typical problem in joshi – random offense.
Very targetted
offense
by both of them. Even basic fairly basic stuff like a backbreaker or
dropkick to the gut felt important because it was followed up. It
made everything important especially in the context that this was
going to be a long match and both of them would probably have to go
again after the fall. Nothing mind blowing but it was a good warmup
for what was to come.
However
the main
selling point of the match is the performance of Hirota. Sakura
Hirota is 42 years old and she has been largely doing comedy for the
past 20 years. However, in this tournament she got humiliated by
rookie and that caused her to transform into a serious wrestler and
kick ass. No imitation jokes from her at all in this, and man judging
by her performance here you wish she’d wrestle like this more
often. After some going here and there she basically challenged her
opponent to a straight wrestling match and they grappled it out. It
was compelling because while Hirota was game and motivated, she was
still facing a much younger, faster and more athletic opponent. As a
result Hirota had to give it her all and that she did. She busted out
all these awesome suplexes, submissions and counters and had one
awesome exchange after another. What I love about this match format
is that everything can truly be a finish. The roll up stuff was
really freaking good and really helped by the fact that you by a roll
up as a finish in this context. Not that any finish done here was
cheap, everything was extremely hard fought. Honestly some of the
best exchanges I’ve ever seen, they were that fucking great.
So
Hirota was absolutely amazing. She was the star of the match, no
doubt, but the other two were fantastic also. I was amazed they went
such a long time without going into overly dramatic overkill or
dangerous spots. The match didn’t even have a dive and they kept
pretty much the whole 40 minutes or so in the ring. I loved the
constant focus on the roll ups and pin attempts. Momonos out of
nowhere dropkicks ruled and Takases power based offense was crushing.
Often in Japanese big matches you have a bunch of nothing for the
first 20 minutes before the last 10 minutes turn into a dancy
reversal fest. Here the opposite was the case as they started busting
out the fire works pretty early, but kept them going in a believable
way by focussing on slick pin attempts and submissions, before
settling into an amazing 50/50 finish with both the last surviving
participiants busting out some epic counters and battling for
control while selling this like a battle on the last few hundred yards of a marathon.
So,
there you have it. You basically had several awesome singles matches
sandwhiched into one coherent narrative over
a 40 minute stretch that never got boring and provided plenty of
highly intricate wrestling, plus the amazing story of Sakura Hirota
being the biggest wily veteran underdog badass you’ve ever seen.
Execution was good, action was tight, no silly antics aside from one
very well timed joke that only lasted 3 seconds and served the
narrative. Best modern joshi match I’ve seen by a mile. Hell it’s
one of the best matches in any era. This was absolutely fucking
mental.
2021 MOTYCs