Mostly wrestling from around the world this week! Catching up on some of my favorites from joshi especially with Sendai Girls and the recent Sareee-ISM show as well as returning to my first loves of this year, CMLL! Far from the most packed week on The Real we’ve ever seen, but some enjoyable highlights nonetheless.
On to the Real…
Note on dates: Review dates refer to my local timezone in the Philippines, match dates are based on the timezone each match occurred in.
Mistico, Mascara Dorada, & Templario vs. Angel de Oro, Soberano Jr, & Barbaro Cavernario (CMLL Super Viernes 8/9/24)
Reviewed: August 31, 2024
CMLL don’t reinvent the wheel here. Nor should they. The wheel is a perfect human invention. You might fuss with the details and the style, but at the end of the day it is what it always has been. It goes round and round and it takes you where you need to go. So too with the main event lucha trios match. What works about it has always worked: the tecnicos fly, the rudos get their heat, then the comeback. Round and round until it takes us where we need to go.
In 2024, CMLL have comfortably perfected this mechanism. There’s some details to admire, for sure. Take note of Soberano Jr.’s truly perverse clown look here, perhaps the most evil and distressing he’s ever looked in his entire career. Then there’s Cavernario’s early antagonizing of Mistico to draw in our hero and spring the trap from the rudos. The control is real fun and meanspirited, always feeling scummy in nature even without reaching the more brutal heights of better versions both this year and across history. And then the comebacks? Just pure joy. Watching our heroes fly about, bamboozling this team of baddies feels so good. You ooh and ahh at the dives, but it’s the feeling that they’re just one step ahead, always a little bit better than the rudos that really warms the soul. Round and round til we get where we’re going.
Rating: ****
Miyuki Takase vs. Yurika Oka (Sendia Girls Sendai PIT 8/24/24)
Reviewed: August 31, 2024
Perhaps one of the best Takase matches in a minute. These two are only given ten minutes here and that does a lot to elevate the match. It ensures that Takase leaves the shtick-heavy parts of her act behind and that Oka has a reason to barrel on head-first to keep the pace up. It’s a real fun match built around seeing if Oka can find a way to take down the much more solid Takase, and it’s worked real smartly with a lot of stiff shots and quick pinning combinations peppered in between. I especially like that there’s a tangible sense of escalation and rush as the time limit approaches, Oka going for those flash pins while Takase works to survive and try and cut her down. Fun stuff.
Rating: ***¾
Mio Momono vs. Mika Iwata (Sendai Girls Sendai PIT 8/24/24)
Reviewed: August 31, 2024
I’ve associated Mio Momono with underdog babyface performances for so long, that it’s easy to forget that she’s a real offensive spitfire too. This match leans into that side of her much more as she goes for an early attack on Iwata here with some German suplexes before keeping control for most of the first half. She really impresses too, never feeling meanspirited about her attack, but definitely being very smothering in her approach. It actually feels like Mika has to really work to get her comeback going. Fittingly too, it takes a really gross brainbuster from Iwata to finally seize control.
Iwata still remains hit and miss for me, literally so as some of those superkicks are about a mile away from where they should be. That said, Mio does a pretty good job of only registering the ones that land flush. At the same time, Iwata does utilize some of her bigger bombs on Mio throughout this, and Mio’s excellent at putting over the effects of those major drops. Mio’s also the one adding a lot of roughness around the edges here, for the better. She’s really laying in those elbow strikes of hers, actually putting Iwata in a real sense of danger that needs to be overcome.
Pretty easily the best Iwata match I’ve seen in about a year, and a really strong performance from Mio once again.
Rating: ****
Mistico vs. Atlantis Jr (MLW Summer of the Beasts 8/29/24)
Reviewed: August 30, 2024
Mistico playing the hits, even in a more house show-style bout like this one, still blows so much other wrestling out of the water. While this doesn’t have the crazy dives of their May 2022 bout, there’s a lot more interesting stuff going on character and structure-wise here. For one, Atlantis Jr. dips back into his rudo ways for this match. All the classics are here such as mask ripping and even some outside interference from Jesus Rodriguez (formerly Ricardo) at ringside. Shoutout to Rodriguez for that punch too, looked great. At the same time too, Atlantis Jr. does some great stuff like intercepting and denying the La Mistica multiple times in the match. He’s so consistent with it that Mistico has to switch strategies at the end to get the decisive pinfall. As for the big man himself, it’s all the usual hits. The big dives, the familiar comeback sequences, but all of it made a little more interesting by Atlantis Jr. forcing wrinkles in the old routine. Still a stripped back version of what we’d get in a CMLL version of this, but great nonetheless.
Rating: ***¾
Konosuke Takeshita vs. The Beast Mortos vs. Lio Rush vs. Komander (AEW Rampage 8/30/24)
Reviewed: August 30, 2024
80% of this is pure sugar rush, just super cool spots arranged in just the right order to get the heart pumping. As far as sugar rush matches go too, these are exactly the guys you want involved. Takeshita and Mortos to toss the small boys around, Rush and Komander to really dazzle with their quickness. Lio Rush especially impressed me here, another really strong performance in what’s an under the radar strong TV year for him (leave the ghoul shit to the indies, I guess). It’s great seeing Soup and Mortos try to get their hands on him while Komander does his more dazzling high flying as well. What separates this from other spotfests, even those involving these four men, is the fun little dynamic established at the start. Mortos and Soup getting into a dick measuring contest and unintentionally leaving themselves open to attack from the face is so funny. A neat little narrative to tie this all together. On top of that, Soup’s added heel tactics throughout this really warmed my heart. Not just an athletic freak but adding things like biting to his repertoire make him a real interesting heel figure on the roster. One of the more fun fireworks shows of the year.
Rating: ***¾
Gunther vs. Randy Orton (WWE Bash in Berlin 8/31/24)
Review: September 1, 2024
Lots holding this down. There’s the now regular occurrence of the international WWE crowd more invested in getting their chants in than responding to the action, there’s the overall glossy presentation, and then there’s the booking. Orton and Gunther are given over half an hour here, almost ten minutes more than their King of the Ring final, and it significantly weighs down their work. Perhaps the worst sag comes towards the finishing stretch–ironic given that’s where the hits should be–when Orton takes just a little too long setting Gunther up for a big announce table bump.
However, outside of that, there’s a lot to enjoy. For one, the work really is just rock solid. Orton positions himself as a situational heel, helping to shine up the European favorite in Gunther. As such Orton commands a good chunk of this, using armwork to take away the champion’s chop and lariat, while also significantly weakening power moves like the powerbomb. The armwork itself is good and consistent, but the selling from Gunther might be even better. Worth noting too is how well this actually works to stunt the champion’s momentum. Not only does it weaken his strikes, but it makes simple things a little harder for him. One great example comes when Gunther hits a big splash, he takes the impact on his arms, and ends up hurting himself just long enough to delay a pinfall. The finish too sees a delightful final problem/solution structure as Gunther sinks in a Sleeper and Orton has a last gasp of trying to elude it. Great on the whole, just stretched a little thin.
Rating: ***¾
Sareee & Mayu Iwatani vs. Chihiro Hashimoto & VENY (Sareee-ISM Chapter V 9/2/24)
Reviewed: September 3, 2024
In which Sareee finally gets back to wrestling people on her level. That’s one of the biggest hindrances Sareee faces these days, just never having believable competition to work with. She always ends up feeling like she’s working down to accommodate someone or otherwise being in situations that enable her own worst impulses. Let’s be honest here, Sareee has a touch of overindulgence to her that often manifests in one too many repetitions of no selling and going long for the sake of her main event spot.
Here against a killer line up of talent though, it all goes down so much smoother. Against Chihiro, Sareee’s just magic. Chihiro’s the real secret sauce here, always believably cutting down Sareee and humbling her in a way that makes all those big firing up spots and no sells feel a little more important down the stretch. Big Hash also keeps the pressure on Sareee, dropping her on her head, and returning fire in kind when Sareee uncorks those big elbow shots. Hell, even VENY brings a welcome roughness to this match. VENY might be the pettiest worker in the whole match, always peppering Sareee with these taunting little kicks and happily engaging in the firefights to hold her own as well. All these more violent tendencies from Sareee’s opponents make things like her grotesque shoot headbutts stand out all the more as necessary desperate ploys to put down her challengers.
Mayu’s fun in this too, she mostly plays the bump freak to eat a whole lot of cool suplexes, and working as support to our main hero. She probably gets the least to work with here, but still makes the most of it (even if at times she’s prone to friendly fire). I like the heels taking advantage of Mayu’s headfirst strategy by instigating miscommunications between her and Sareee.
Still, this does almost stray a little too far from what works. It can be a little too back and forth and I’d die for a much longer control segment, but as far as just crashing into each other, it’s as good a time as any. Up there among the best joshi tags of the year.
Rating: ****
