It’s summer (in the Northern Hemisphere), and you know what that means. It’s time for pro wrestling tournaments around the world.
- The United States: AEW held its inaugural Continental Cup.
- Mexico: CMLL’s International Gran Prix
- Europe: RevPro held its Women’s Grand Prix to determine the challenger for Alexxis Falcon’s Undisputed British Women’s Championship at the RevPro 14th Anniversary Show.
- Japan: ZERO1’s Fire Festival, JTO’s King of JTO Championship Tournament, NOAH’s GHC 200 Championship Tournament, TJPW’s Tokyo Princess Cup, NJPW’s G1 Climax, Wave Pro’s Catch the Wave, and Stardom’s 5Star Grand Prix. We’ll also have AJPW’s Zennichi Jr. Festival in late August.
While the G1 Climax has rightfully dominated conversation, let’s not neglect the 5Star Grand Prix, which will set up Stardom’s direction for the rest of the year. It would give us a chance to check in on familiar faces like (the) AZM, Mei Seira, Azusa Inaba, Saya Iida, Utami Hayashishita, Starlight Kid, and Saya Kamitani. It’s also always a good time to check in on Sareee. In this case, Chi Chi and Komomo Minami each summoned reinforcements (Sareee and Marigold World Champion Miku Aono) as their feud continued.
In this edition, I covered:
- Syuri (c) vs. Natsupoi (Stardom, July 18, 2026)
- Maika vs. AZM (Stardom, July 20, 2026)
- Mei Seira vs. Azusa Inaba (Stardom, July 26, 2026)
- Saya Iida vs. Utami Hayashishita (Stardom, July 26, 2026)
- Starlight Kid vs. Saya Kamitani (Stardom, July 28, 2026)
- Komomo Minami & Miku Aono vs. Sareee & Chi Chi (Marigold, July 30, 2026)
Syuri (c) vs. Natsupoi
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix 2026 – Day 1
July 18, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: 4
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: 9.25
Stardom kicked off its first day of the 5Star Grand Prix with eight tournament matches, but the focus was also on Natsupoi’s challenge for the IWGP Women’s Championship. Natsupoi greatly annoyed me upon first impression, but my opinion turned after witnessing how she would take a whooping and keep on ticking. Her exaggerated reactions belied a magnetic personality in the ring, and I was sorry to hear that she would be retiring on January 3, 2027.
Luckily for us, Syuri has given no indications that her adventures in pro graps would stop any time soon. Since she captured the IWGP Women’s title from Sareee (at a NJPW show, so go figure), she tore through notable opponents: Saya Kamitani at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20, Athena at NJPW The New Beginning USA 2026, Megan Bayne at All-Star Grand Queendom 2026, and Rina Yamashita at The Conversion 2026. (I also saw in person how PRODUCE criminally squandered her time by sticking in her a six person tag team match at PRODUCE Volume 3: Azucar. At least she seemed like she was having a good time that night.)
From the match’s announcement, I had hoped that Natsupoi would use her athleticism to dodge Syuri’s attacks and find gaps in her defense. I also expected Syuri to absolutely wreck Natsupoi the moment she got her hands and feet on her. Most of all, I had wanted a barn burner of a match from them because this was the main event of the first night of the 5STAR Grand Prix and a title match. Luckily for us, Stardom understood the effectiveness of the old ways. The undercard matches were kept short so that final tournament match (Aya Sakura vs. HANAKO), the semi main event (a trios title match between God’s Eye and AEW representatives Triangle of Madness), and the main event were the only matches to officially last more than ten minutes.
Because Stardom was organized around factions (sit down, Gabe Sapolsky, we’re not talking about FACTIONAL WARFARE~!, though folks should check out ThROH the Years, which started covering that period of ROH not too long ago), we should note that Natsupoi was a member of Cosmic Angels and that Syuri repped God’s Eye. Since the God’s Eye configuration of Ami Sourei, Hina, and Lady C just lost the Artist of Stardom title to the Triangle of Madness, Syuri had even more pressure to beat Natsupoi and retain the title for her group. A loss could have triggered a leadership crisis in the faction.
That little scamp Natsupoi caught Syuri and me off guard by following the Code of Honor and then grabbing Syuri for a German Suplex. A spear, an armbar, and a German Suplex on the apron. Syuri should have known better than to turn her back on her opponent, so I don’t blame Natsupoi for ambushing her. All of that barely slowed Syuri down before she arose to slap Natsupoi across the cheek to stop her on the top turnbuckle. Syuri then introduced Natsupoi to back pain by throwing her from the top turnbuckle to the apron. It was a wake-up call to anyone who was worn out by the hours of wrestling that preceded it, and it was the right call by Natsupoi and Syuri.
Syuri’s draping DDT from the apron to the Ota City General Gymnasium’s floor put Syuri in the driver’s seat for this segment, and she proceeded to wail on Natsupoi. Going back to how Kuro had to shift himself into position for Michael Oku’s attacks and how Ricky Sosa seemed to have picked it up from Kuro after their match, Natsupoi gave another example of how positioning yourself cleanly allowed you to use intentional small movements to accentuate the action in a match. Syuri, famed for her kicks, slammed her leg into a seated Natsupoi’s back. To emphasize how hard Syuri’s kicks were to the crowd, Natsupoi shifted forward at the moment of impact.
If Natsupoi had to shift herself into position for Syuri’s kicks, then her scoot forward to portray how much force Syuri’s kick would have been lost in the visual noise. Clean set-ups allowed wrestlers to maximize their movements.
As expected, Natsupoi had to find a gap in Syuri’s armor to start her attack. In this case, Natsupoi took advantage of Syuri’s aggressiveness by catching her running kick on the apron and yanking her down with a Dragon Screw. With Syuri now on the floor with her, Natsupoi could use her athleticism to twist out of Syuri’s grasp and drill her face into the floor with a facecrusher. (There may be more similarities between Natsupoi and TJPW’s Suzume than one might have assumed.)
Now on the attack, Natsupoi focused on wearing down Syuri’s right arm with stomps and an armbar. It was a puzzling decision since Natsupoi’s strength was not in the ground game; even in the context of professional wrestling and not Brazilian jiu jitsu or MMA, Natsupoi moved around too much to make the armbar work as an attack. The armbar’s power comes from the fighter’s ability to wrench the arm out of the shoulder joint by popping their hips, which would be hard to do if you were not grounded on the mat.
Syuri demonstrated a more effective approach to an armbar after wrangling a sprinting Natsupoi down. After Natsupoi found escape in the bottom rope, she and Syuri traded German Suplexes and kicks. On their knees after the double down, Natsupoi won their staring contest by headbutting Syuri, which was certainly the most direct approach she could have chosen.
Unfortunately for Natsupoi, a headbutt is a double-edged sword. So, while it broke Syuri’s hold on Natsupoi, it stunned Natsupoi herself long enough for Syuri to take charge of the match with a dropkick and a backstabber. It also gave Syuri a window to show off her trademark wild look to the ringside handheld camera. That in turn gave Natsupoi enough time to recover and send Syuri from the top rope to the mat with a super German Suplex.
Natsupoi’s own delay in following up her attack (hey, give her a break; her head was still smarting from the headbutt) allowed Syuri to block Natsupoi’s Fairial Gift with her knees. Syuri lifted Natsupoi up to the middle rope, and we had another small moment that helped the match make sense. Natsupoi was faced away from Syuri in the corner, so Syuri kicked her hard in the butt to make her turn around for what Syuri had planned. (It was a slap in the face and an arm capture suplex.)
Syuri couldn’t make Natsupoi submit or knock out her with a draping DDT, and Natsupoi was out of options. So, they just punched each other to see if they could make the other give in. At first, Syuri absorbed the shots and asked for more, but Natsupoi overwhelmed her with hammering blows. Still, Natsupoi couldn’t pin Syuri, which allowed Syuri to pulverize Natsupoi’s midsection and head with knee lifts. A sporting Syuri challenged Natsupoi to rise and fight, and Natsupoi responded with gusto. However, her slaps, her back kick, her super kick, her German Suplex hold, and her Fairial Gifts were all for naught. Naturally, she moved up her play chart and tried the Fairy-ing Ring next, but it was also to no avail.
Natsupoi’s Fairystrain was a step too far for Syuri, and she went on the offensive with a uranage, a running knee, and a gutbuster. Syuri tried to send Natsupoi to Syuri World, but Natsupoi had the Fairy Blink as a ready counter. That kicked off Natsupoi’s final burst, which was capped off by her version of her husband’s Made in Japan.
Unfortunately for Natsupoi, it was as ineffective a finishing blow for her as it was usually for Shingo Takagi. From there, it was all but over except for the three count as Syuri went through her sequence (the Flow Flame, a Buzzsaw Kick, a headbutt, and the Syuri World) and picked up the win.
The match was the t-shirt that you change into after a long day of work. The flow of your arms through the sleeves is predictable, and it’s comforting when you put it on. You’re excited to put it on because it marked the transition from work to (hopefully) rest, but you probably wouldn’t think much about it at any other time of day. You’re glad that it was there, but you have other shirts that would bring you joy.
You can watch the match and the show on Stardom World, and you can find a potential favorite t-shirt on NJPW’s store.
Maika vs. AZM
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix 2026 – Day 3
July 20, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: 185
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: 8.07
It was probably no coincidence that AZM, who was a part of Neo Genesis, sported the distinctive color scheme of Evangelion Unit-01, right? Pretty sneaky, sis. Get in the 5STAR, AZM, or Ema Maishima will have to do it. (I mean, c’mon; she even had a headband that made it look like she had Asuka’s hairclips.)
In any case, our tour through the 2026 5STAR Grand Prix started on Day 3. On Day 1, the main feature was Syuri’s defense against Natsupoi. On Day 2, we had Rina Yamashita vs. Utami Hayashishita, which was unfortunately not refereed by Konosuke Takeshita and involved neither Miyu Yamashita nor Kaho Matsushita. Here, on Day 3, Maika and AZM faced off in the main event in Red Stars Block A action.
The previous match on the show, where HANAKO defeated Miyu Amasaki, flowed directly into this one. After her victory, HANAKO, who teamed with Maika, messed around with Amasaki, who teamed with AZM. AZM came out to defend her teammate, so Maika appeared to back hers. The referee smartly started the match since AZM and Maika started hitting each other despite his directions, and we were off.
Daniel Bryan née Bryan Danielson would certainly accuse the crowd at Herbis Hall in Osaka of being fickle since they chanted for both AZM and Maika. I couldn’t necessarily blame them since it was a battle between two of the most highly decorated members of the Stardom roster. Maika was a former World of Stardom Champion, and AZM was a former NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion and a High Speed Champion. Amazingly, they were both under 30 years of age. (Maika was 28, while AZM was 23.) And Maika was an honorable mention in this year’s 30 Under 30, while AZM placed at ninth.
As one would expect, it was a power vs. speed fight between Maika and AZM. (I wouldn’t say that Maika was big since she was billed at 5’4″/162 cm and 143 lbs/65 kg, but she dwarfed AZM, who was billed at 5’0″/153 cm and 110 lbs./50 kg.) AZM tried to stand and fight, but she couldn’t match Maika blow for blow. She tried to slow Maika with a submission hold, but Maika powered through it. Outside the ring, she tried to dive on to Maika from the apron, but Maika just caught her and threw her at some trainees.
Back inside the ring, they hustled through their attacks and kept the pace snappy. AZM took her best shots with some Canadian Destroyers that looked awkward because of the size difference. Maika escalated with her Michinoku Driver, and AZM took her last shot with La Mistica that rolled into the AZM Sushi.
To my surprise, AZM survived a super Michinoku Driver, which seemed like it should have been enough. Maika needed the Flame Fall to finish AZM and earn her first points in the tournament.
This was a very good main event of a show in a smaller venue. AZM and Maika showed a good level of effort, and they didn’t fall completely to the tropes of the power vs. speed formula. You can watch the match and the show on Stardom World.
Mei Seira vs. Azusa Inaba
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix 2026 – Day 5
July 26, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: 56
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: 8.63
Mei Seira changed her look in time for this year’s 5STAR, and I had to check the match graphic several times to ensure that I had pulled the right one. (For comparison, see the portrait that Stardom sold through the NJPW store.) We last saw her in her fun match against another high speed star, Mio Momono. On Day 1, Seira defeated Rina Yamashita, but she lost to Maki Itoh on Day 2 and Konami on Day 4.
On the other side, we hadn’t seen Azusa Inaba in this column for some time; our last encounter was her match against her sister, Tomoka, last year. Now 18 years old, Azusa Inaba still split time between Stardom and JTO. On Day 1 and Day 3, she lost to Saya Iida and Rina Yamashita, respectively, but she defeated Utami Hayashishita on Day 4.
The tournament moved on to the Duo CEREZO in Joetsu for Day 5, which meant that it was another small venue. Like AZM, Seira was also a member of Neo Genesis, while Inaba was a member of HATE. Seira and Inaba also represented two interesting points of intersection between joshi and American wrestling. Seira’s overseas adventures were through Stardom (the American Dream 2024 and 2025 shows), Stardom’s nominal partner organization (ROH Supercard of Honor 2024), and SPARK Joshi. Inaba, on the other hand, had only wrestled in the United States through Sukeban, which meant that she had to go by the nom de guerre Delicious Dolly. (Sigh.)
Inaba, inspired by a desire to get through this tournament match as quickly as possible with as little damage as possible, tried to beat Seira, the former two-time High Speed Champion, at her own game. So, we got a neat little trip from Seira as she and Inaba learned what Sonic the Hedgehog already understood about war.
That quickly taught Inaba that the smarter path might be to slow it down, so she concentrated her energy on tossing Seira around by her hair and choking Mei Seira’s connection to the Speed Force by attacking Seira’s very subtly braced knee. When Inaba foolishly gave Seira space, she took to the skies with a dropkick from the middle rope. However, Inaba applied the lesson to keep Seira close by sprinting after her and booting her off the top rope to the floor before Seira could fly again.
On the floor, Inaba and Seira had a fun moment where they played with the twenty count, and they had a good forearm strike exchange and kicking duel back inside the ring to tease another count out. To really hammer home how evenly matched they were, Inaba and Seira traded some pin attempts and some medium-sized munitions (a suplex for Inaba and a pop-up powerbomb for Seira).
Amidst Inaba’s barrage of kicks and wrenching holds directed at her leg, Seira tried to reach a quick conclusion with the Checkmate. Inaba just blocked it and twisted her ankle until Inaba could reach the rope break, at which point Inaba booted her in the face. Seira summoned the drive to kick out at one and launch herself for a dropkick, but she paid tribute to Inaba’s focus on her leg by hopping on one foot to pin Inaba. Worn out, Seira couldn’t protect herself from Inaba’s multiple suplexes as time expired on the match.
For a match that ended officially inconclusively, Inaba and Seira gave the enthusiastic crowd their hard effort and an exciting last image. Given that Inaba attacked Seira after the match had been called, I could see a rematch, and I would gladly watch that rematch based on what they showed me here. Inaba showed that the high hopes for her were justified; she blended an energetic style with the ground-game focus from sitting under the TAKA Michinoku learning tree. Best of all, it was a match involving a member of HATE that had no interference!
This won’t be considered one of the best matches of the year, but it probably would have been one of the best matches of the night. If I were in attendance, this match would be a reason for buying another ticket for the next Stardom show in Joetsu.
You can watch the match and the show on Stardom World.
Saya Iida vs. Utami Hayashishista
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix 2026 – Day 5
July 26, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: 170
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: 8.11
We have seen in other matches that Saya Iida was a hard hitter in a small package (and that she, unlike her colleague in STARS, Hanan, understood the basic principles of tag team wrestling). So, pairing her with another hard hitter in Utami Hayashishita, who wandered through July without a faction or focus after her loss to Suzu Suzuki, was an intriguing proposition.
Iida started the tournament with wins over Azusa Inaba on Day 1, Lady C on Day 3, and Maki Ito on Day 4. Hayashishita wrestled Rina Yamashita to a draw on Day 2 and lost to Azusa Inaba on Day 4, so Hayashishita was desperate for a win. Also, Hayashishita had grown out her hair or added some extensions.
Like Maika and AZM, Hayashishita (5’5″/165 cm) and Iida (4’9″/145 cm) had a comical height difference, which might explain why both of their forearm strikes at the start looked non-committal. Hayashishita’s kicks and dropkick looked and sounded better. Iida tried to catch Hayashishita on a crossbody, but Hayashishita had too much momentum and/or Iida hadn’t planted herself on the mat sufficiently, so Iida fell backwards with Hayashishita on top of her. They covered it with a Hayashishita pin attempt, but I wish that they didn’t try this same sequence immediately after. They mostly made it up for it with Iida’s low lariat, which made sense because she was all of 4’9″ tall.
All memories of Iida’s failure to lift Hayashishita were forgotten when they charged at each other from a runner’s starting stance in the aisle. To such meat-headed behavior, I can only respond with the three Siskos.
That set up another count-out tease, but it was different than the one Inaba and Seira had because they weren’t scrambling to keep each other out of the ring. Here, the meatheads were crawling to back to the ring after falling on the Duo CEREZO’s hard marble (or granite) floor.
Back inside the ring, they picked up where they left off with more shoulder charges and meat slapping. I was tickled by Iida’s low running elbow that again leveraged Iida’s size.
And just like in her match against Suzu Suzuki, Hayashishita was determined to win our hearts and minds by falling right on her dome, in this case on Iida’s Iidagan.
After absorbing a barrelful of punishment from Iida, Hayashishita had enough sense left to wiggle out of Iida’s Muscle Buster. A release German Suplex only dazed Iida, and an Air Raid Crash only bought Hayashishita time to catch her breath and recover some meter. She burned immediately that meter on dodging Iida’s low lariat. (Let’s get on my hobby-horse again with a point about how Hayashishita intentionally scooted forward to dodge Iida’s low lariat, which was only effective in the course of the match’s story because she didn’t have to scoot around to get into position for Iida’s other moves.)
Iida escaped Hayashishita’s Argentine Backbreaker Bomb and used her compact density to pin Hayashishita for a very close nearfall. Still, Hayashishita had momentum on her side by this point and blasted Iida with a couple of lariats, a German Suplex hold, and ultimately the Hijack Bomb to score her first win in the tournament.
I came away from the match with a stronger impression of Iida than Hayashishita. Since Iida lost the match, that might have been design. She felt dynamic and interesting, and it felt like she moved with a stronger pep in her step than Hayashishita. That’s not to denigrate Hayashishita’s performance, which was closer to good than simply fine. I think seeing Iida leverage her shortness offensively just felt more impressive and cohesive than seeing Hayashishita’s power offense that didn’t particularly trade on her height. Still, they gave us a wonderfully meat-headed moment, and to that, I say, “Dayenu.”
You can watch the match and the show on Stardom World.
Starlight Kid vs. Saya Kamitani
Stardom 5STAR Grand Prix 2026 – Day 6
July 28, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: 78
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: 8.47
This was Starlight Kid and Saya Kamitani’s first rematch since their title match in February. Kamitani unmasked Kid after that match, and while they’ve been on opposite sides of multi-person matches, this was Kid’s first real opportunity for revenge. Since that match, Kid traveled the world: she had a short stint in CMLL, a trip to WrestleMania Week in Las Vegas, and a return to the United States to defend Stardom’s honor against Thekla at AEW Forbidden Door 2026. Thanks to the schedule, this was Kid’s first match in the tournament.
After Kamitani broke her finger in the match against Kid, she took the break that she had announced in January. She lost the World of Stardom title to Sayaka Kurara at All-Star Grand Queendom 2026 to build on the story that she and Tam Nakano crafted in 2025. While she didn’t make the trip for WrestleMania Week this year, she did journey to the United States because she had to prove that she was a true M-L-Dub Renegade. In June, she wrestled with Rina against Lady Frost and Shotzi Blackheart at the Melrose Ballroom, against Lady Frost at the 2300 Arena, and with Lady Frost and Rina against Scarlett Bordeaux, Shotzi Blackheart, and Zamaya at the 2300 Arena. Those were truly Renegade-pilled matches. (Naturally, MLW has not aired those matches yet as of this writing since they’re only up to the shows that they taped in February.)
Kamitani and Kid started their match, the main event of this show at Korakuen Hall, fast and tried to keep the pace up. Their last match lasted more than twenty-seven minutes. Since the tournament matches have a fifteen minute time limit, they need to condense their potential into about half the time. Kamitani paid homage to Samoa Joe by pulling the old “I’m walking away from your dive, you goof” gag. It’s too bad, then, that Kamitani’s throwing Kid into the chairs seemed so tame when that should seem more dangerous. That said, throwing Kid into some chairs, rolling her back into the ring, and then tossing her back out to launch her into more chairs was a very good bit.
Coincidentally, this was another match where one wrestler (Kamitani at 5’6″/168 cm) towered over the other (Kid at 4’11″/150 cm). Of course, this was also another clash between Neo Genesis and HATE.
They teased danger by brawling around a stairwell that might have been the one that Kaisei Takechi jumped over in his match against Yuki Ueno in February. Then, Kid delivered on that promise of thrill by jumping over the stairwell on to a mass of bodies.
Kid targeted Kamitani’s leg to slow her down, which might have been more effective if they didn’t face a 15 minute time limit. It’s possible that Kid’s attacks on Kamitani’s legs slowed Kamitani for the second it took for Kid to spring from the mat to the middle turnbuckle to bring Kamitani down from the top rope with an armdrag. However, it didn’t stop Kamitani from nailing Kid’s head with a spin kick or lifting her for a pair of Fisherman Suplexes.
Kid reset the match with a cross-legged Fisherman Suplex, and they brawled some more after the double down. The attacks on Kamitani’s leg returned to prominence when Kid took Kamitani down with a Dragon Screw and twisted the leg again with a Stretch Muffler after a Tiger Driver. So, we’ll blame Kamitani’s weakened leg for her missed Frankensteiner on Kid (even though Kid flipped off the top rope as if Kamitani had elevated sufficiently).
With time running out, Kamitani clutched at her damaged right knee and stumbled around to find a way to beat Kid. Neither Kamitani’s Star Crusher nor Kid’s Black Tiger Driver proved to be conclusive blows. Kamitani was too resilient to let Kid’s moonsault press and Tiger Suplex finish her. Because Kid was more honorable than Azusa Inaba, Kid did not continue her attack on Kamitani and just collapsed on top of her.
It was a good tournament match and a solid main event, but it was hampered by its conclusion. I liked the pettiness that emerged from both wrestlers (Kid stepping on Kamitani on her way to the turnbuckle, Kamitani throwing Kid back into the ring only to throw her back out) because it spoke to their enmity. As the seventh singles match that they’ve had and the fourth time they’ve fought in the 5STAR Grand Prix, it would be a minor block in their feud compared to the World of Stardom title matches that they’ve had together. There are worse matches to watch, but this was nonessential.
You can watch the match and the show on Stardom World.
Komomo Minami & Miku Aono vs. Sareee & Chi Chi
Marigold Burning Desires – Day 7
July 30, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: 36
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: 8.79
The pre-match recap video must be seen for Sareee’s reaction to Komomo Minami’s breaking into tears during a press conference. It was a combination of disbelief, pity, and bemusement, and it reminded me of Bryan Danielson at his dickish best. Minami must have been legit shook by her emotions because she then shoved Chi Chi and Sareee after the group photo was taken at the press conference.
We know from last time that Chi Chi and Minami were very testy with each other after their short-lived tag team imploded like the Air Devils did in ROH in 2005. Now, Minami had gotten Sareee’s attention by shoving her at that group photo, so it was Minami’s time to impress Sareee by hitting her as hard as she could. (At this rate, Sareee and Minami will be teaming by Sareee-ISM XII.)
Unfortunately, we were denied the cognitive dissonance of Sareee entering the match to Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” because Chi Chi and Sareee used Sareee’s music. (I am not the biggest fan of Sareee’s new music.) Since Sareee returned to Japan after the unfortunate adventure in WWE, she teamed with Chi Chi 14 times. For comparison, in the same span of time, Sareee teamed with Takumi Iroha 37 times and Miku Kanae 20 times. In the past two years, Aono and Minami have teamed 12 times, so neither team should be hampered by a lack of familiarity between partners.
The veterans stayed out of the fight at first and let Minami and Chi Chi settle it between themselves. Minami struck first with a dropkick at the bell, which was what I wanted to see given the feud’s raised temperature and the wrestlers’ temperaments. Chi Chi’s three-inch height advantage allowed her to hit Minami with a big boot that the Marigold camera operators could not capture well. After dropping her splitting leg drop on Minami, Chi Chi tagged out to Sareee.
To Minami’s credit, she stood her ground and didn’t tag herself out. Sareee invited Minami to throw the first punch, and Minami’s blows glanced off of Sareee’s collarbone to little effect. Who could deny Sareee stepping out of a fighting stance to invite Minami again to try what she did at the press conference?
And yes, I clapped hard when Miku Aono raised her own hands and told Minami to get back out there. Wrestling, pro graps, conflict play, or whatever you want to it call doesn’t need to be hard. It can be as simple as “go ahead and fight.”
Naturally, Minami hammered away at Sareee’s chest and still fell to just one of Sareee’s strikes. Also naturally, Sareee gave Miku Aono a taste for good measure, which caused me to cackle with delight. So did Chi Chi and Sareee double-teaming Minami by tossing her diagonally across the ring from one corner to the other, which was wonderfully mean.
It was notable that Aono did not jump in to save Minami from Sareee’s submission holds. Sure, she yelled encouragements from the floor, but she let Minami sink or swim on her own with little regard to the outcome of the match. (Chi Chi’s defense along Aono’s side of the ring didn’t quite challenge the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Steel Curtain in impermeability.) In a sense, losing or winning this specific match did not matter to Aono. It would not have affected her standing as the Marigold World Champion or whether Sareee (or Chi Chi) would claim a challenge for the title. Only Minami’s pride was at stake.
After spending a very long time in Sareee’s submission hold, Minami was finally able to drag them close enough to the rope that Sareee accidentally broke the hold by leaning too far over. Just about when I had seen enough of Minami getting clobbered, she escaped Sareee’s grasp and retaliated with a crossbody splash off of the middle rope. That only stunned Sareee, who proceeded to stomp Minami some more. By the time that Chi Chi stepped up to Minami again, Minami looked like she was kept upright by some stiff breezes. So, I cackled again when Chi Chi dumped Minami at Aono’s feet like a bag of laundry and dared Minami to let Aono take her off of her hands.
Therefore, I was disappointed when Minami finally tagged out to Aono after knocking Sareee down with a dropkick. I don’t think Minami had done enough offensively to deserve the escape. I wished that Aono never tagged in to this match at all so that Minami could have earned the outcome, win or loss, to the match. Still, Aono gave the match a change of pace that Minami couldn’t have after her beatdown, and she punished Sareee and Chi Chi with her kicks.
Hilariously, Sareee was laissez-faire when Aono and Minami tried to double team Chi Chi, and she was proven right because Chi Chi was able to fight her way through on her own. Aono and Chi traded snapmares in an entertaining bit, and Sareee looked ecstatic when she and Aono slugged it out.
I haven’t seen someone so happy about punching another person since Oscar de la Hoya beat Martin Prince to death.
Aono and Sareee couldn’t quite connect on what they tried to do with Sareee on the top rope, but I think Aono was trying to throw Sareee down with a snapmare. The fact that Sareee rolled off of Aono’s back on to the mat made it awkward, but they covered for it with Aono’s kick to the back of Sareee’s neck. Aono tiptoed over into villain country by refusing to release her sleeper hold on Sareee and took another step into it when she stalked Chi Chi as she rolled her partner out of the ring. That positioned all three to catch Minami’s plancha from the top rope, which in theory took Chi Chi out of the match for a while.
A series of clotheslines against the rope weakened Sareee enough for Minami to re-enter the match, but Sareee refused to give her the satisfaction of even a one count kick-out. Instead, Sareee squirmed and rolled until she reached the bottom rope. It took Aono’s high head kick to help Minami get a two count kick-out, but all that got Minami was probably just a little more mustard on Sareee’s low dropkick to the face.
Aono tried one last time to save her teammate, but that earned her a trip to the back…drop driver. As for Minami, Sareee crushed her with a double stomp from the top rope. Sure, it didn’t rival Low-Ki’s best double stomps, but it surely looked unpleasant. It was also the finishing blow on Minami.
There were undeniable flaws (Minami freezing up for a second after ducking one of Chi Chi’s big boots before jumping up for her dropkick, how lackadaisical Chi Chi seemed when she walked to grab Minami after stepping aside from Minami’s dropkick, Chi Chi’s awkward running kick to Aono, Minami’s laughable attempt to hit Chi Chi with a low dropkick to knock her off the apron when Aono had Sareee in a submission hold). Nonetheless, the match’s story was most agreeable to my tastes of wrestlers kicking each other’s asses for pride and in the spirit of jolly good, hot-blooded competition.
Best of all, multiple other matches could spawn from this match. Chi Chi and Minami still haven’t settled their own score. Minami could have a singles match with just Sareee some day after she had a chance to develop into a fuller wrestler. Chi Chi could have an admittedly weak claim on Aono’s title. And of course Sareee could try to recapture the Marigold World Championship after her interaction with Aono.
You can watch the match and the show on Wrestle Universe.
Next time: In 2020, German Culture declared that the baumkuchen was the king of cakes. In 1995, TV Tokyo aired the 8th episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, “Asuka Strikes!” At a pivotal moment in that episode, the German-American character Asuka Langley Soryu, demanded that the Japanese protagonist, Shinji Ikari, think in German. He thought of baumkuchen because it was one of the few German words he knew. In that spirit, we will check out matches from Japan (NOAH, GLEAT, and Kyushu Pro) and Germany (wXw and the GWF). Please note: I will not be doling out another helping of fanservice.
