Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Tokyo Joshi Pro - Wrestle Princess 2 (10/9/2021)

4. Suzume & Arisu Endo vs. Riho & Shoko Nakajima

This was actually one of my most anticipated matches on the card and I'm glad it was given a decent amount of time for them to have a good back and forth. They're all lightweights so there was lots of exciting rope work and high-flying maneuvers. Riho made her return to Japan after a long time and showed a couple of new little quirks. ***1/2

5. Aja Kong & Moka Miyamoto vs. Miu Watanabe & Yuki Arai

Aja has adapted to the times without having an ego and I respect that about her. Her knees are tattered so her movement isn't so good, but like Abdullah the Butcher, she has the charisma and aura to get a lot of mileage out of a simple move. This was a really good match. Miu was not able to giant swing Aja, which was a letdown, but she was able to show her strengths in other ways, including one of the quickest giant swing transitions I've ever seen. Arai standing up to Aja and taking her big offense was very compelling. ***3/4

6. International Princess Championship: Hikari Noa (c) vs. Yuki Aino

This match had basically nothing going for it coming in so I was pleasantly surprised by how good it turned out to be. Easily my favorite match for this belt since the inaugural decision match between Natsupoi and Gisele Shaw. Very well built with great submission struggles and a tense finish. For the first time during this reign, it felt like Hikari's comeback was earned. Aino, often overlooked, almost always delivers. ***3/4

7. Princess Tag Team Championship: NEO Biishiki-gun (Saki-sama & Mei St-Michel) (c) vs. magical sugar rabbits (Yuka Sakazaki & Mizuki)

This was an action-packed semi-main with all sorts of creative genius on display. It was chaotic but never seemed to get too far out of control. Mei was great as usual, with her broom knee drop and a Japanese leg roll clutch counter I've never seen. The finish was way too sudden, it almost felt like the sort of finish you'd see in a match where an injury occurred. I was also surprised Mizuki's whirling candy wasn't used here, seemed like an appropriate occasion. ***1/2

8. Princess of Princess Championship: Miyu Yamashita (c) vs. Maki Itoh

This was a strong main event, which packed a lot of drama and emotion into a relatively short duration for a big show title match. Like some previous main events in this promotion, the middle part of the match seemed to lack focus; there's an Avalanche Attitude Adjustment used as a transition move in the middle of the match... still, it improved as it went on and the finishing segment where they were trading hard strikes was hot. ****

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