Ice Ribbon - #1123 ~ Nagoya Ribbon 2021 (5/30/2021)
ICExInfinity Championship: Tsukasa Fujimoto (c) vs. Tae Honma
This was Fujimoto's third defense in three weeks so I didn't expect her to go all out. And I think it's fine that she didn't. This was a good technical wrestling match, with positional battles on the mat, smooth transitions and timely counters. Honma gave the match a proper title match feel through her dramatic selling.
***1/2
Tokyo Joshi Pro - Stand Proud 2021 (6/26/2021)
Princess of Princess Championship: Miyu Yamashita (c) vs. Sakisama
The layout of this match felt all wrong. Saki-sama is the super heel who rarely loses and yet she barely got any significant offense. She was the one surviving an onslaught of big moves and making the comeback from underneath at the end even though she's the clear heel. There was such an easy story to tell here and they screwed it up with a strange role reversal. If the idea was to shatter the illusion of Saki-sama, I suppose this match accomplished that, but it didn't make for a compelling story. The in-ring itself was also not strong. For a match between two strikers, this was lacking high-level strikes. The strikes looked soft and seemed to have little power behind them, save for a couple of exceptions at the end.
**1/2
