This review was commissioned by Dan Vacura over on my Ko-fi account.
It’s amazing how distinct everyone in this match feels on two different levels. First is the distinction between them as teams. Gear does a lot to provide context here especially as I’m unfamiliar with most of these women’s work plus this time period of their promotion. The tag champs come in decked out in black, while our plucky challengers shine bright in warm reds and pinks.
But when the match starts progressing, they translate this ideas into their ringwork as well. There’s just a better, more admirable feeling to how Leon and Yoneyama work the match. Their double teams feel more like celebrations of team work than an unfair utilization of numbers, plus their high flying offense and especially Yoneyama’s use of roll ups and pinning combinations calls to mind the best of tecnico lucha wrestling. Meanwhile, the tag champs still have some high flying of their own, but the overall tone feels a lot meaner. They’re a lot more concentrated on tossing our heroes around and stretching them out on the mat. It’s a great little display of how using only the actions in the ring (and a few visual context clues), pro wrestling teaches us who to root for and leads our emotions.
The second level everyone distinguishes themselves is individually. Again, from having close to zero knowledge on all these workers, they all became clear as characters real fast. There’s Yoneyama’s high flying and roll ups, yes, and Leon contrasts her with an occasionally more direct power offense. Leon’s regular use of the spear really added a lot of energy to her comebacks and made for a great signature offensive move to cut off the heels. Meanwhile on the champion’s side, AKINO’s more submission-based attacks very much stood out. I would say the match really starts to come into its own when she’s stretching Yoneyama out on the mat, even going so far as to bite Yoneyama’s fingers while in the hold. Kuragaki feels much more power-based, utilizing a lot of suplexes in the back half in an attempt to smother the babyfaces.
It’s a bit more back and forth than I want my tag wrestling to be, but they compensate with a good sense of escalation and pace. What starts as a very simple trading of control segments (none of them long enough to really elicit the heat I want) eventually breaks down into a more exciting finishing stretch. All the double teams look so good, with nasty ones like a double La Tapatia from the champs, or the more flashy assisted splashes from the challengers. And they do well to space out all the big spots at the start before really ramping up the pace towards the end.
Far from a classic, it’s at least a strong display of what can be achieved with the right pace. Everyone comes out feeling like they’ve served their role both as individuals and as units. The grammar of pro wrestling can be used to convey the easiest of stories when done right.
Rating: ***3/4
