I couldn’t tell you too much about either Momo Watanabe or Mayu Iwatani.
Last year, I dipped my toes into Watanabe’s Wonder of Stardom title defenses and for the most part enjoyed what I saw. I even really liked the match between these two women in the finals of the 5 Star Grand Prix but other than that, they are mostly mysteries to me. Joshi is one of my major blind spots in professional wrestling so I come to most matches with a blank slate.
Unfortunately for Mayu and Momo, I watched this match in the morning at around the time that my body decided that I hadn’t gotten enough sleep from the night before. I was laid out in bed, trying to focus on the laptop in order to give the match a fair chance given the chemistry I saw them display at the end of the 5*GP.
And for the most part, this did well. Momo’s early work on Mayu’s arm manifested into some really good selling. They escalated things steadily leading into a big flourish of offense from Momo–strings of meteoras and some nice dives–that led into your standard bomb throwing finishes. They lost me somewhere between the meteoras and the head dropping suplexes.
Might have to do with the ring that I couldn’t quite here the bumps on the mat or the fact that the early arm work didn’t seem to figure in any significant way down the stretch, but these two ladies lost the battle to my poor life habits and sleepy disposition. It wasn’t a bad match, far from it, and I’d even go far enough to recommend it but it just didn’t sustain my attention.
