Misaki Ohata vs. Yuuka (WAVE, 5/17/2016)

WAVE - Young Oh! Oh! 29 (5/17/2016)

Catch the WAVE - Orion Blue Block: Misaki Ohata vs. Yuuka

Ohata ambushes Yuuka before the bell, they get right to it in an action-filled encounter. There are hard hits and a couple of killer suplexes. Yuuka was incredible, the raw emotion in her movements and the way she applies holds. Her strong charisma is what separated her from the rest of the IR juniors.

***3/4

Misaki Ohata vs. Yuki Miyazaki (WAVE, 9/10/2017)

WAVE - Kobe WAVE ~Revenge~ (9/10/2017)

Hardcore Match: Misaki Ohata vs. Yuki Miyazaki

I thought this was a well-orchestrated hardcore match. They knew how to make the spots feel organic, for the most part... towards the end it felt like they were just cramming in high spots that didn't need to be there. Both bled buckets and took shots to the head, this was as brutal as it gets.

***3/4

WAVE - Saint October (10/9/2017)

2. Moeka Haruhi vs. Yoshiko

Decent match, heatless, but Haruhi showed strong emotion.

**1/2

7. Nagisa Nozaki vs. Ryo Mizunami

Mizunami was overconfident and doing her thing, and Nagisa puts her to bed with a sleeper in under 2 minutes. I feel like this would have been so much better in front of a hot crowd, but I still got something out of it.

***

8. Regina di WAVE Championship: Rina Yamashita (c) vs. Misaki Ohata

This didn't feel much different than their previous matches, save for a couple of sequences. The Black Dahlia reversal from the Splash Mountain was amazing. Crowd was dead as usual which brought things down. 

***

WAVE - 10th Anniversary『CARNIVAL WAVE～NEVER ENDING STORY～』(8/12/2017)

1. WAVE Tag Team Championship: Gokigen BBA (Cherry & Kaori Yoneyama) (c) vs. Big Rice Field (Hiroe Nagahama & Kaho Kobayashi)

*1/4

3. Fairy Nipponbashi, Hibiscus Mii, Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru & Sakura Hirota vs. Hana Kimura, Hikaru Shida, Mio Momono & Rin Kadokura

**1/4

4. Aoi Kizuki & Nagisa Nozaki vs. Mika Iida & Yuki Miyazaki

**3/4

6. Ayako Hamada, Meiko Satomura & Nanae Takahashi vs. Chihiro Hashimoto, Satsuki Totoro & Takumi Iroha

Satomura and Nanae do a smashing job of bringing heat into this match. This is the best I have seen from Iroha all year; loved the back and forth slapping.

***3/4

7. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs. Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami)

Enjoyable, fast-moving spotfest; these two teams have amazing chemistry. There were some unique counters and the double Hot Limit was great.

***1/2

8. Regina di WAVE Championship: Rina Yamashita (c) vs. Yoshiko

It feels surreal to watch a joshi event that takes place in the same venue Okada and Tiger Mask W fought in. This borrowed a lot from the SEAdLINNNG match, but since this is Rina's turf she was the focus of this story. The action was intense and hard-hitting, and the closing lariat battle was epic.

****1/4

9. ASUKA vs. Yumi Ohka

This went a little longer than it needed to be, but it was good. There were fluid sequences and counters, and ASUKA showing her freakish athleticism. Ohka brought it in this match, I was very impressed by her since she can be mediocre a lot of the time. It felt like it peaked somewhere in the second act; could've used some trimming, but still a great main event.

***3/4

WAVE - Be Exciting! (7/2/2017)

6. WAVE Tag Team Championship: Over Sun (Yuki Miyazaki & Yumi Ohka) (c) vs. Gokigen BBA (Cherry & Kaori Yoneyama)

For some reason BBA really want to be put in Miyazaki's Embarrassment Hold, and there was a creative moment where Yoneyama tries to force herself into it. Miyaki also does an inverted version of the move on Cherry, which looked cool as fuck. Probably making this match sound better than it actually was... it was very, very boring other than Miyazaki.

*

7. Regina di WAVE Championship: Ryo Mizunami (c) vs. Rina Yamashita

This was mostly action with almost no emotional depth, and there is nothing wrong with that when the action is fresh... but this was nothing I haven't seen from these two before. Still a solid enough slugfest, though, they were trading bombs, and Yamashita's cracks herself open with a headbutt.

***

WAVE - Catch THE WAVE 2017 ~ Namijo Kesshosen (6/4/2017)

2. Catch THE WAVE 2017 - Semi Finals: Rina Yamashita vs. Rin Kadokura

Another Kadokura match that reaches the 15-minute mark... FFS! This one was good, though. They played up the tension of Kadokura being seemingly unbeatable since she hasn't been pinned.

***1/4

3. Catch THE WAVE 2017 - Semi Finals: Misaki Ohata vs. Sareee

***1/2

7. Catch The WAVE 2017 - Finals: Misaki Ohata vs. Rina Yamashita

***3/4

WAVE - Weekday WAVE Vol. 107 (5/10/2017)

1. Catch THE WAVE 2017: Hiroe Nagahama vs. SAKI

DUD

2. Catch THE WAVE 2017 Other Than Block: Mochi Miyagi vs. Rin Kadokura

***1/4

3. Catch THE WAVE 2017: Rina Yamashita vs. Sareee

***1/2

4. Catch THE WAVE 2017 ZABUN Block: Misaki Ohata vs. Moeka Haruhi

***3/4

Ice Ribbon - #832 ~ ICE in WONDERLAND 2017 (8/27/2017)

2. Asahi vs. Manami Toyota

This was Asahi's debut and she's against Manami Toyota! Asahi's peers were surrounding the ring, cheering her on, the crowd was super into it.

***1/2

5. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs. Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami)

****3/4

6. Elimination: Maruko Nagasaki, Matsuya Uno, Satsuki Totoro & Tequila Saya vs. Team DATE (Hana DATE, Karen DATE, Nao DATE & Nori DATE)

There was a lot of action here and it didn't spiral out of control like the match in Yokohama. Hana DATE was injured so everyone swarmed her. The Maruko-Nori ending was had believable near-falls and proper escalation. Great match. 

****1/4

7. ICE×∞ Championship: Risa Sera (c) vs. Maya Yukihi

This caught me by surprise -- I didn't know Maya-obachan had it in her. Her leg work was great and she had all of these clever counters to Sera's offense. Sera's comebacks were kind of selling-free, but her offense looked strong and much better than it has looked in past defenses.

****1/2

SEAdLINNNG - Summer Blast (8/24/2017)

1. High Speed: Kaho Kobayashi vs. Manami Toyota vs. Maruko Nagasaki

**

2. ULTRA U-7 Tournament Semi-Final: Mio Momono vs. Yoshiko

The work leading up to the sudden death was whatever... there was a lot of obvious filler, Yoshiko using her weight to crush Mio was interesting. When they get to the sudden death, 2-count for the win, is where things get hot and Korakuen was really into it. Great stuff.

**1/2

3. ULTRA U-7 Tournament Semi-Final: Sareee vs. Takumi Iroha

Great match, loved the strike exchanges, and Iroha destroys Sareee with her powerbombs.

***

4. TLC Rules Match: Nanae Takahashi vs. The Great Sasuke

This match was mostly about The Great Sasuke trying to cripple himself. He sets up traps that do not work out in his favor, time and time again. Nanae wasn't holding back, Sasuke was willing to take hideous punishment, and I thought the action generally flowed well into the high spots. This was a lot of fun.

****

5. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs. Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami)

This was a 20-minute rollercoaster of double team moves and surly elbow strikes. Arisa/Ohata seems to be the end goal of this best of three series, and I dug the heat building segments. 

****1/4

6. ULTRA U-7 Tournament - Final: Takumi Iroha vs. Yoshiko

I wasn't really into this one. It starts to pick up when Iroha does a tremendous sell of Yoshiko's sleeper hold, she was foaming at the mouth, struggling to catch her breath.. but the work before it was dull. Definitely one of the weaker Yoshiko matches this year. 

***

Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. Yapper Man #3 & Yapper Man #4 (Ryota Hama) (Michinoku Pro, 6/18/2017)

Michinoku Pro - Tokyo Conference 2017 Vol. 3 Muno Taiyo Festival 3 ~ Itan Jasetsu ~ (6/18/2017)

MPW Tohoku Tag Team Championship / UWA World Tag Team Championship: Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (c) vs. Yapper Man #3 & Yapper Man #4 (Ryota Hama) 

Yapper Man #3 is what drew me to checking out this match.. I couldn't resist her yaeba, they remind me of someone I hold dear. Hama is revealed as the secret Yapper Man #4 and his strength is exaggerated since he's a super heavyweight wrestling for a junior title. Hidaka & Fujita choose to take out their frustrations with this unfair booking on #3, heeling it up like pricks. Fun match.

***

WAVE - Weekday WAVE Vol. 105 (1/18/2017)

1. Hiroe Nagahama vs. ASUKA

***1/2

2. Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami) vs. Sumire Natsu & Yako Fujigasaki

***3/4

3. WAVE Tag Team Championship #1 Contendership: Over Sun (Yuki Miyazaki & Yumi Ohka) vs. Kaori Yoneyama & Mika Iida

There's a lot of crazy stuff happening here. Loved Iida's matwork and those European uppercuts, and I liked the NEO nostalgia with the closer against Miyazaki.

****1/2

4. Five on One Gauntlet: Kyoko Kimura vs. Kagetsu, Moeka Haruhi, Rina Yamashita, Rin Kadokura & Yukio Sakaguchi

A 40+ minute Kyoko match probably doesn't sound attractive to many people, but I thought this was a great gauntlet where each opponent brought something fresh.

****1/4

Misaki Ohata vs. Rina Yamashita (WAVE, 5/3/2017)

WAVE - CATCH THE WAVE 2017 ~ Scramble (5/3/2017) 

Catch THE WAVE 2017 ZABUN Block: Misaki Ohata vs. Rina Yamashita

Yamashita looked really great here, I like how she's been adding more knee strikes into her moveset. The payoff to this narrative of Rina trying to hit the Splash Mountain in tribute to Dynamite Kansai and failing every time will be amazing.

***1/2

WAVE - Osaka Rhapsody Vol. 33/Shizuoka WAVE ~Fuji~ (4/29/2017~4/30/2017)

WAVE - Osaka Rhapsody Vol. 33 (4/29/2017)

3. Catch THE WAVE 2017: Misaki Ohata vs. SAKI

SAKI dominates until Ohata makes her intense comeback. The impact of that fisherman buster from Ohata looked nasty.

***1/2

4. Catch THE WAVE 2017 ZABUN Block: Hiroe Nagahama vs. Rina Yamashita

***

WAVE - Shizuoka WAVE ~Fuji~ (4/30/2017) 

Catch the WAVE 2017: Moeka Haruhi vs. SAKI

***

WAVE - CATCH THE WAVE 2017『Bracken1』 (4/26/2017)

2. Catch THE WAVE 2017 Other Than Block: Mochi Miyagi vs. Sareee

***1/4

4. Catch THE WAVE 2017: Misaki Ohata vs. Rin Kadokura

***3/4

WAVE - JOSHIPRO Festival ~ Love and Kindness and Strong Heart ~ (3/21/2017)

1. Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Ryo Mizunami

***1/4

2. 48 Count Match: Cherry vs. Maya Yukihi

**1/4

3. ERINA vs. Kagetsu

**1/2

4. Hiroe Nagahama vs. Natsumi Maki

**

5. Fairy Nipponbashi vs. Mika Shirahime

**1/4

6. SAKI vs. Sareee

***

7. Rin Kadokura vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto

***

8. Misaki Ohata vs. Yoshiko

****

9. Sumire Natsu vs. Takumi Iroha

***3/4

10. Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Rina Yamashita

***3/4

WAVE - Sunday WAVE Vol. 32 (3/5/2017)

3. Las Aventureras (ASUKA & Yuu Yamagata) vs. Fairy Nipponbashi & Mochi Miyagi

***3/4

4. Misaki Ohata vs. SAKI

***1/2

5. WAVE Tag Team Championship - Elimination: Over Sun (Yuki Miyazaki & Yumi Ohka) (c) vs. Cherry & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Hikaru Shida & Mika Iida

***3/4

6. Regina di WAVE Championship: Ryo Mizunami (c) vs. Moeka Haruhi

This was one hell of a carry job from Mizunami. Moeka showed fighting spirit and had great counters and took some punishment. Really great match.

****1/2

WAVE - White Breath (2/11/2017)

1. Fairy Nipponbashi & Rina Yamashita vs. Kagetsu & Sawako

***

3. Elimination: ASUKA & Yuu Yamagata vs. Hikaru Shida & Mika Iida vs. Hiroe Nagahama & Moeka Haruhi

**3/4

4. Natsu Sumire vs. SAKI

**

5. WAVE Tag Team Championship: Over Sun (Yuki Miyazaki & Yumi Ohka) (c) vs. Azure Revolution (Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera)

**3/4

6. Regina di WAVE Championship: Ryo Mizunami (c) vs. Misaki Ohata

****1/2

Ice Ribbon - #796 Sendai Ribbon 2017 (4/15/2017)

2. Tequila Saya, Kyuuri & Akane Fujita vs. Matsuya Uno, Maruko Nagasaki & Hiiragi Kurumi

***1/2

4. Maya Yukihi vs. Misaki Ohata

***1/4

5. DASH Chisako & Manami Toyota vs. Tsukushi & Tsukasa Fujimoto

***3/4

6. ICE×∞ Championship: Risa Sera (c) vs. Mochi Miyagi

These two brought the heat. I like Sera's edge. She chokes Miyagi with her own whip and wrestles more aggressively. Miyagi herself had something of a transformation, more aggressive approach than usual as well. This was worked so differently than the Risa Sera we've seen recently.

***3/4

Benten-Musume vs. Dotomi Bolshoi vs. Fairy Nipponbashi vs. Hibiscus Mii vs. Kuro Benten-Musume vs. Kuroneko vs. Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru vs. Mei Lee vs. Misaki Glico #2 vs. Misaki Glico #3 vs. Mr. Misaki Glico vs. Nyanber vs. Police Wo~man vs. Rina Yamashita vs. Sawako Shimono (DAIJO, 2/12/2017)

DAIJO - Valentine Labyrinth (2/12/2017)

Hikake Bridge OSAKA G1 GP Rumble: Benten-Musume vs. Dotomi Bolshoi vs. Fairy Nipponbashi vs. Hibiscus Mii vs. Kuro Benten-Musume vs. Kuroneko vs. Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru vs. Mei Lee vs. Misaki Glico #2 vs. Misaki Glico #3 vs. Mr. Misaki Glico vs. Nyanber vs. Police Wo~man vs. Rina Yamashita vs. Sawako Shimono

***1/4

Ice Ribbon - MARCH 2017 (3/26/2017)

2. Command Bolshoi & Leon vs. Kyuuri & Maika Ozaki

Fun, energetic tag match. Bolshoi & Leon rule. Dug the Bolshoi-Kyuuri sequence where they traded submission counters. Kyuuri hits a gnarly Cutie Special.

***

4. Akane Fujita & Jaguar Yokota vs. 385 Myankie's (Jun Kasai & Miyako Matsumoto)

Fujita's return match from injury, so naturally she takes a table bump and a superplex from a ladder. This was decent, albeit slow-paced.

**

5. Arisa Nakajima vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto

This was a brutal match. There's hair puling, strike exchanges, headbutts, kicks to the face, knees to the face, and plenty of surliness and disrespect. They work well towards the time limit, keeping the action fresh and dynamic, and the pacing hot. A level of ultra-violence that is rare in the Ice Ribbon ring.

****

6. International Ribbon Tag Team Championship: Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami) (c) vs. This is Ice Ribbon (Hiiragi Kurumi & Tsukushi)

Avid Rival are such a destructive, hard-hitting duo. Some of the bumps that Tsukushi took here were frightening. Kurumi's been looking especially good lately; loved that segment she had with Mizunami.

***3/4

7. ICE×∞ Championship: Risa Sera (c) vs. Rina Yamashita

Risa's weak offense and contrived set ups hurt this, but there's still some nice bumps and sequences to enjoy. An average match.

**1/2