World Of Stardom Title Match: Mayu Iwatani (c) vs. Takumi Iroha - Stardom Goddesses Of Stardom Tag League 2020 Day 4 18/10/2020
While this didn’t draw me in like their February encounter, this was still a tremendous match, putting forward both wrestlers’ best attributes. The awkward finish where Mayu rolled up Iroha after taking a Running Three isn’t desirable, and not the only time Mayu brushed something off easily in this match, but the negatives are limited to a few moments. Iroha was brilliant, cerebral-like when targeting Mayu’s leg with mean leg kicks that left a big bruise on the leg. Loved the intensity and aggressiveness she brought. Aside from Iroha’s kick based offence, she reminds me of Jun Akiyama in the way she presents herself. Such a quality to have. Despite being the ace of Marvelous, a small promotion even compared to Joshi promotions, she has a lot of presence and easily comes across as a star whenever she pops up in STARDOM. Her and Mayu work off each other really well as Iroha can laugh her suplexes and kicks while Mayu’s frame and ability to sell like death maximises that tenfold. Mayu’s insane endurance only eggs Iroha on more too. Iroha had some great work on top. Not only with her kick combinations, but in her submission work as well. Iroha pulled out a DEEP stretch muffler, which is always a good thing and the way Mayu sold it was great. But the match wasn’t just Iroha dominating the match, showing great progression from Mayu who learned from that loss, with Mayu more than getting her shots in. Mayu isn’t Aja Kong - she’s not even Toshiyo Yamada as far as striking goes - but she lays in the slaps and kicks, causing Iroha’s face to swell up. It was cringe inducing at times. There is a lot to love about this match, in fact writing all of this has made me like it even more, but it’s not without a few selling issues and the finish was overwrought with needless counters that eventually lead to a messy finish. ****1/4
Wonder Of Stardom Title Match: Giulia (c) vs. Himeka - Stardom Goddesses Of Stardom Tag League 2020 Day 6 29/10/2020
Well who would’ve thought this would’ve been a match to be the main event at a STARDOM Korakuen Hall show a year ago? Both decided to take a risk jumping ship to STARDOM and it’s paid off. Plus this has further appeal with it being between two people of the same unit (Donna del Mondo). I do love a good inner faction battle. There was a good sense of competitive spirit mixed in with some of the aggressive parts of the match. I don’t think the strike exchanges worked particularly well for me. For example, Mayu/Iroha had a better one in terms of how it flowed into the match but I respect the attempt and what it tried to bring to the match. The match had some ugliness to it which I thought was a positive. Himeka threw some hard strikes, which Giulia took like a champ, while Giulia threw big bombs. Interesting match. ***1/2
Defo agree on both matches.
ReplyDeleteThe first half of the Mayu-Takumi match was superb, with the stretch muffler/giant swing hybrid spot being the highest point of the match. Still, the finishing stretch makes it come across as weird what with all those roll up attempts in a row and Takumi finally falling for the less convincing one of the three. Also, irks me how Mayu never pins with the piledriver and only uses it as a set up for a less convincing finish. Still, i think both Takumi matches have issues that prevent them from being my faves out of the big Mayu matches of this run.
The Himeka-Giulia one was good. It started really well, with Himeka dominating most of the initial stretch of the match and being aggressive right form the get go, and the finish was good too. Also, crowd was hot throughout the match, esp compared top the superior but considerable colder Konami-Giulia title match on the Sendai Cinderella show. Problem is, that long ass spot with the slaps and forearms exchange was bad. Himeka is't good with single strikes, but she ain't that good at doing long sucessive strike sequences and Giulia's strikes kinda suck plain and simple (it's defo her weak point in ring wise). Had it not been for that, it would have been a really good match, alas it's simply a solid match.
The rcent Himeka-Momo match was overall worse but it had a better strike exchange spot imo, even though Momo shrugging off Himeka's offense was bullshit after having dominated most of the match was simply bullshit.
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