CyberFight Promotions
CyberFight Festival 2021
June 6, 2021
Saitama Super Arena
Saitama, Japan

Watch: Wrestle Universe

Meet Your Reviewers

Paul Völsch: Paul is ready for the biggest show of the year as all the CyberFight promotions are finally teaming for that sweet sweet synergy. After dropping off a bit from NOAH, Paul hopes that this show can reawaken his interest in the promotion. After missing the preshow Paul will join the review for the main portion of the show. Don’t follow him on Twitter.

Jeri Evagood: Jeri is drinking coffee straight from the pot and holding her eyelids open with tape to do her best damn job of reviewing this show for you in the stupid o’clock hours. She’s excited for the triple main event and is ready for the long haul of what is potentially going to be a long show. You can show your appreciation for such actions (as unhealthy as they are) by following her lukewarm takes at @TheJerriest_Jer.

Pre-Show
BeeStar (Mirai Maiumi & Suzume), Arisu Endo, Haruna Neko & Moka Miyamoto def. Kaya Toribami, Mahiro Kiryu, Nao Kakuta, Pom Harajuku & Raku

Jeri: The festivities kicked off with this ten-person tag. The words that come to mind are fine and inoffensive. I have nothing more to offer. It was the opening match on the pre-show, with plenty of bodies packed in to assure them a place on the card. They clearly put forth their effort, got their time, and at moments came off fun. I have nothing more major to say than that but at the same time didn’t regret watching it.

Pre-Show Delayed Entry Battle Royal
Antonio Honda def. Akitoshi Saito and Kazuki Hirata and Makoto Oishi and Masao Inoue and Mohammed Yone and Saki Akai and Shuhei Taniguchi and Shu Sakurai and Toru Owashi and Yoshiaki Yatsu and Yuji Hino and Yuna Manase and Yusuke Okada and Yuya Koroku

Jeri: What a long show (pre-show and main show) always needs…. A Battle Royal. I’ll leave it up to you whether or not I’m being sarcastic. Not much to really tell you about this other than it was a Battle Royal where entries were delayed, and stuff happened. It wasn’t really an exciting or interesting Battle Royal. A time consumer. Let’s move on to other things.

Pre-Show
Kouki Iwasaki, Shuichiro Katsumura & Yumehito Imanari def. Keisuke Ishii, Ken Ohka & Shota

Jeri: The match never stopped going, which is a compliment. Action, constant movement and flow. It was highly entertaining and the kind of match that makes an excellent substitute for coffee as it woke me up and entertained the heck out of me. Ishii in particular was someone I was highly into but that isn’t a knock on everyone else in the match as I felt they put their feet forward to give me a highly entertaining pre-show affair. Well done and a great way to end the pre-show. This is fun.

Junta Miyawaki & Kinya Okada def. Yuki Iino & Toi Kojima

Paul: A very entertaining opening tag. The NOAH young guys are a little further in their development so it made sense for them to get the win here. Pretty decent opener overall and they guys got a decent amount of time to shine. All four seem to have promising careers ahead of them and we will see what position on the card they will be in on next year’s CyberFight Festival.

Jeri: It dawned on me as the match began I was in for quite the long haul. So I knew right away I needed a bit of a jump start, and this match gave it to me. This was a good solid opener, which sounds like a throwaway compliment but in reality, is what I’m looking for here. Good, well worked, nicely paced, but doesn’t throw everything at you and drown you in action or moments. That can be saved for later in the show. There were even moments of grumpiness that popped up which I always want in my wrestling. A worthwhile primer for the journey to come. I continue to be quite into Okada, but it was Miyawaki that I really enjoyed in this match. That’s not to slag or take away from Kojima and Lino who entertained quite a bit for their parts. If this show is going to be a journey, this is quite the eager and motivating first step.

Three-Way Tag Team Match
Hyper Misao & Shoko Nakajima def. BAKURETSU Sisters (Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino) vs. Hakuchumu (Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi)

Paul: Great showcase for Tokyo Joshi Pro. This was all action as they just went out there wanting to show what they can do. This was a simple a great fun match. All six women got the chance to shine. The clear standout was Shoko Nakajima though, which is not surprising given that she is one of the best workers in the promotion.

Jeri: FUN! I think that’s the most appropriate way to explain this match. This was a great action filled with so much positive energy exuding from my television. Great showcase and showing from all three teams here filled with personality and the ringwork to match. Three team tags can be such a chaotic shamble of a mess, and while there might be small amounts of shambles at times in this match, never would I call it a mess. It was mostly clean, crisp, filled with good moves and action. Fun, fun, fun, and this show is rolling along so far with some good stuff. I wish I could bottle the energy of those women and save it for later when being up this early really starts to hit me. Nakajima absolutely ruled in this match and if I had to highlight anyone overall it would be her. Well done, I had a blast.

Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba  def. Danshoku Dieno & Super Sasadango Machine

Paul: This match wasn’t for me. If this matches your style of humor you probably thought this was great but it doesn’t match mine so it didn’t land. While I did like Dieno’s match against Akiyama he’s normally not someone I pay attention to in DDT and this reinforced why. A match that had its place on a card like this but I just didn’t like it.

Jeri: Never a good feeling/start when before a match begins I already feel a desire to dislike it already forming in the pit of my stomach. I think I need to channel Mr. Horse and express “No sir, I didn’t like it”. I did not like that at all. The comedy” did not make me chuckle or laugh, Danshoku Dieno is someone I always find horrible and non-entertaining. I’ve been told by some people that he is capable of having good stuff, but I guess he just doesn’t do it when I’m watching, or it’s all lies. Nothing landed with me in this match, just felt like an absolute waste of time, a show screecher that hopefully starts back up immediately with the next match. If this show is going to have peaks and valleys, this was in the deepest part of the valley. In fact, it dug a small hole in that valley just so it could sink a bit lower. Ugh.

Masa Kitamiya def. Hideki Okatani

Paul: The expected squash match. This was the last match added to the card as Kitamiya turned on Nakajima and left Kongo on Monday. Really just a quick way for Kitamiya to get a dominant way after his turn.

Jeri: I prayed upon Gotch that this match would wash out the taste of the previous match….. And soon after typing that it was over. It was a squash, but Okatani at least in the few precious moments he had come out swinging. Kitamiya won, won quick, won decisively, but Okatani got to show he was willing to fight even in the face of quick and inevitable defeat. Good enough for me, but alas allows the previous match to still linger inside me.

Maki Itoh, Yuki Kamifuku & Marika Kobashi def. Hikari Noa, Mizuki & Yuki Arai

Paul: I put on my Maki Itoh shirt just in time for this match. Though I did like Itoh’s singing, I was a little sad that we did not get the big arena Old McDonald had a farm. A pretty decent match overall but nothing that will blow you away. I did like the earlier three-way tag match more but it wasn’t bad.

Jeri: ALERT! ALERT! Maki Itoh is in this match therefore match enjoyment inflation shall happen! And yes, I am dancing to her theme at 2:00 A.M…. badly at that. My cat is judging me well enough I don’t need you judging me. The one thing I am always loving about TJPW is the wrestling is good, but it’s the personality and energy that always wins me over. There was a lot of it in this match, and it made up for things I did not like and it enhanced things I was quite fond of. Entertaining affair all things considered even if a bit on the lesser side admittedly. The previous TJPW three-way was better, but I wouldn’t sneeze too hard against this. Again though my rose color Maki Itoh glasses are on. Also, Maki Itoh won so I ended up dancing to her theme song again because I have taste.

Momo No Seishun Tag (Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara) def. Stinger (HAYATA, Seiki Yoshioka & Yoshinari Ogawa)

Paul: In an absolutely shocking twist no one turned on anyone else in this match. I am sure this means the junior factions in NOAH will stay the way they are now for a long long time. A pretty decent six-man tag match but there is a cap on how good these NOAH junior multi man tags can be especially if HAYATA is in there. Overall a fairly forgettable match.

Jeri: Something horrible happened during this match, I ran out of coffee. I will do my best to put a brave face on moving forward, but I am shooked. Oh yeah, match reviewing. I guess it was okay? Alright stuff from the six men involved but nothing I’m going to remember or have stick with me when it’s all said and done. I don’t really get into junior tag stuff presented by NOAH all that much, and HAYATA always puts me into “can we just get this match over with?” mode. Not bad, not memorable, kind of there. At least it didn’t overstay its welcome….. Too much.

DAMNATION (Daisuke Sasaki, Soma Takao & Tetsuya Endo) (w/Mad Paulie) def. The 37KAMIINA (MAO & Shunma Katsumata) & Chris Brookes

Paul: Damnation still remains one of the coolest factions in all of wrestling. Given who was involved in this it’s not surprising that this was pretty good. While Brookes has become a better singles worker since coming to Japan this is the kind of match where he tends to shine the most. These are six of DDT’s better workers and it showed.

Jeri: Confession, I have a significant thirst for at least one person in this match. I will not say who, just know them showing up on my t.v at 2:42 A.M is….. Quite appreciated. Oh yes, you know, the actual wrestling itself. There was very little chance of this being bad, and those chances did not materialize and this ended up being a good affair. Lots of good wrestling, transitions, and Endo hits a wonderful springboard SSP near the end of the match I absolutely loved. All six men contributed to the match and I didn’t feel like anyone felt like an odd man out. All six men are damn good at what they do so all and all this was a pretty good outing I am glad to have gotten as I was feeling kind of a lull in being entertained to a certain degree up until this point. Maybe this will be the quality of the show’s restart point.

Eruption (Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Sakaguchi), Akito, Naomi Yoshimura, Sanshiro Takagi & Yukio Naya def. Kongo (Hao, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh, Manabu Soya, Nio & Tadasuke)

Paul: This already feels way hotter than anything else on the card. Takagi immediately gets busted open in the mouth and we get some accidental blood, which is always welcome. Kenoh has no time for DDT goofiness and just beat the shit out of Takagi. Kudos to the boss of CyberFight for taking a vicious beating. The highlight of the match was the sequence between Sakaguchi and Nakajima as they just laid into each other with some very stiff kicks. This felt like a proper DDT vs NOAH match and both companies got to show off their own styles without it clashing.

Jeri: By the sheer number of people and who’s involved I knew going in there was going to be a lot going on. KENOH RODE A BIKE DOWN THE ENTRANCEWAY AND STRUCK SOMEONE! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! Sakaguchi and Nakajima at one point just struck the hell out of each other with kicks, and if you know me you know how much I thought that fucking ruled. In fact, this match was the first match on the show to get dangerously close to having my tits in need to be calmed. This ruled and was a blast. This match felt like a Donna Summers song because it was Hot Stuff. There was heat, there was energy, and it felt like winning meant something to both teams, but ESPECIALLY DDT who ended up with the victory. I loved DDT attempting their shenanigans, I loved Kongo having no time for them, I loved that KENOH GOT ON A BIKE! Watch this, up until this point the best thing on the show.

The 37KAMIINA (Konosuke Takeshita & Yuki Ueno) def. Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura

Paul: This was absolutely amazing. The first genuinely great match on the card. The future of the respective companies facing off against each other and they pulled out all stops. I hope they make more use of doing cross-promotional stuff and put at least one of Ueno or Takeshita in the N1 this year. I need a Kaito vs Takeshita singles match as these two match very well. Ueno continues to build his Most Outstanding case this year with yet another amazing performance as he just tore Kaito apart in the finishing stretch. The finish makes sense as well as it continues Kaito’s slump story as he is slowly getting rebuilt to take the GHC Heavyweight title back. ****1/2

Jeri: “checks tits, accepts that they potentially need to be calmed.” HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AWESOME! GREAT! Not borderline great, not on the edge of great, flat-out tremendous tag team wrestling that was hot, hard-hitting, and fuck me it was good. While this show hasn’t been bad, and the previous match was damn good, this was the first OUTSTANDING match on the show with everyone fighting as if this match had importance and significance and no one being the weak link. I did not except Ueno getting the pin on Kiyomiya and I let out a fuck when it happened, it the best way possible. Folks, go watch this match, this match is awesome. Ueno was fantastic, but while I am highlighting him it is meant as no slight to the other three who were fantastic in their own right. Kiyomiya brought it hard, Takeshita excelled, and Inamura continues to be an impressive slab of beef. WATCH  THIS! WATCH ALL OF IT. ****1/4

Princess Of Princess Title Match
Miyu Yamashita (c) def. Yuka Sakazaki

Paul: Another great match as the first title match of the night delivers. This felt like a big match and both women did a great job on the big show. They represented the top of Tokyo Joshi Pro in a big way and hopefully, this will help the company to grow as it deserves a bigger spotlight. Yamashita’s title reign is off to a great start as the match where she won the belt was excellent and this was the perfect first defense for her against the ace of the company. Sakazaki also went into her big match zone as she took it to Yamashita who just barely managed to avoid defeat. Nevertheless, this felt like a convincing win for the champion and it will be interesting to see where Sakazaki goes from here. ****

Jeri: Let the good times roll, let my tits not have a moment of calmness. That ruled as well and was a great start to the main event portion of the evening. The type of energy, vibe, determination, and feel of importance from both competitors I want out of a big-time title match. Some of those strikes, sweet baby Jesus, did not look fun to take in this match. Sakazai came off as someone who wanted that title badly, and did all she could, even through bouts of frustration to pull it off. Alas, Yamashita is a champion for good reason and her ability to convey her endurance and came off well as she fended off the best Yuka had to offer and came back with some hard shots to put her down. A big-time feel match with big performances delivered to match the feeling. This was an excellent showcase of the Princess of Princess title and it was straight-up great stuff. You will definitely want to make sure you take the time to watch this match, you will be rewarded with the quality we all crave. TJPW is something I need to keep watching more of, whenever I dip my toes in they deliver, and they deliver the top-notch shit. ****1/2

KO-D Openweight Title Match
Jun Akiyama (c) def. HARASHIMA

Paul: The reigning champions go 2 for 2 as Akiyama also successfully defended his belt. HARASHIMA with a great show of emotion after the match as he can not believe that he got choked out by Akiyama and was visibly frustrated. This was a match between two all-time greats and it showed. Even at their advanced ages, both men are still excellent and they pulled out all of the stops for the big match. This was a match well worth being put on a big show like this. Two old men went to war with each other to determine who is better and Akiyama firmly established himself as the top dog. HARASHIMA tried his best to dethrone the champion but Akiyama held onto the belt and proved that he is superior to HARASHIMA and the rightful champion. ****

Jeri: I loved how HARASHIMA at the end of the match was frustrated and wanted to continue fighting not realizing he had been choked out. Shit like that can enhance a lot. This was great, despite my hesitation going in. At first, it was solid and good but as the match built and time went on it got more and more special. I especially love the final few moments as HARASHIMA survived exploder after exploder with Akiyama unable to put him away. HARASHIMA was determined to become champion and only Akiyama choking the life out of him (figuratively of course) could take the fight out of him long enough to earn victory. Simple but effective storytelling that enhances all and makes everything significant. HARASHIMA put on one heck of a performance whether it was on defense trying to survive or on offense attempting to hit that killing blow that would’ve earned him the title. Akiyama on his part proved once that in his early fifties he can still put on engaging, entertaining, and exciting big-time matches. ****

GHC Heavyweight Title Match
Naomichi Marufuji def. Keiji Muto (c)

Paul: Muto did the moonsault that is all that matters. He also put over that young whippersnapper Marufuji who is 17 years younger than him. The finishing stretch of the match was hot but otherwise, it did not have the same intensity as the previous three matches. Regardless, this was about as good as a match between these two could have been in 2021 and Muto did the moonsault again. His whole reign built up to this and then it wasn’t even enough to beat Marufuji. Will be interesting to see how Marufuji’s reign goes as he has slowed down quite a bit and doesn’t have the same level of charisma as Muto to make up for it. Does this match get a rating? No, because it doesn’t need one because Muto hit the moonsault and this is all that matters.

Jeri: HOLY SHIT CALM MY TITS! MUTO DID THE MOONSAULT! I JUMPED OFF MY ZOD DAMN COUCH! I RISK A NOISE COMPLAINT! MY CAT IS NOW IN HIDING!… Oh yeah, there’s more to the match than that, but honestly, nothing else in this match, not even Marafuji’s victory itself can rise above and beyond the fact that Keiji Muto hit a Gotch damn moonsault. Muto’s body, bruised, battered, broken, is now beaten as Marufuji has won the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Would he have been my choice to dethrone Muto? No, but it is done, it is finished. Muto’s reign caused the expression of many opinions, mine have been mixed and up and down, but it has now ended. I thought this was a worthy main event, with a significant match ending, and a huge moment of Muto hitting a moonsault in desperation, but ultimately paying the price for his risk. Could I be rating this match with Muto-themed rose-colored glasses? Absolutely. It wasn’t as good as the previous three matches, but I thought it did well on its own, especially in the later stages of the match. Muto’s reign ended on a positive, and maybe more positive for some…… it has now ended.  Also, let me end this with once again reiterating MUTO HIT THE MOONSAULT!!!! FUUUUUUU!!!!!!!! You know what, I keep waffling on the rating. Here it is ***¾ for the match, ***** for the MOONSAULT!!!!