Nagisa Nozaki vs. Rina Yamashita (WAVE, 11/15/2017)

WAVE - Weekday WAVE Vol. 111.5 (11/15/2017)

Regina di WAVE Championship #1 Contendership Tournament - Semi-Finals: Nagisa Nozaki vs. Rina Yamashita

This is the most impressive Nozaki has looked since returning. She was going at it with Rina. Her movements and emotes are always striking to me, and she is very calculating with that sleeper hold. Yamashita held the match together, and they crafted a great story around Nozaki's dangerous sleeper.

***1/2

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