Cero Reviews TJPW Grand Princess '22

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Cero Reviews TJPW Grand Princess '22

Post by cero2k » Mar 21st, '22, 12:52

TJPW Grand Princess '22
March 19, 2022
Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan

Introductions - Namba carried out the usual rules to follow speech, brought out TJPW originals Kanna and Chikage Chiba, who talked about being in the first shows and being happy to see TJPW thriving. Up Up Girls came out for their performances, and TJPW Grand Princess '22 STATTOOOO!

Suzume and Arisu Endo vs Moka Miyamoto and Juria Nagano - 6.5/10
Really good opener. There aren't many Suzume/Endo tag matches that I haven't liked, they're one of my favorite tags now a days, they just have a good energy about them.

This was also Nagano's debut, she's a trained karateka and has been training with Sakazaki and Mizuki. There were a couple of things you could see she was thinking about her positioning and timing, but for the most part, she looked really good, her striking combos are great.

Finish saw Endo remove Nagano from the match with a dropkick, and Suzume take down Miyamoto with Ring a Bell for the pin.

Gambare Joshi (Yuuri, Harukaze, Moeka Haruhi, & Yuna Manase) vs TJPW (Haruna Neko, Nao Kakuta, Mahiro Kiryu, & Kaya Toribami) - 4.5/10
Manase is dressed as Ken Ohka for the match, he's the face of Ganbare, and she has been working to rise to his level for the joshi division.

Match had its high points, but overall, it really wasn't all that great. The TJPW team wasn't that strong. Kakuta is a good wrestler, but the other three are not at her level, so the match was good when it came down to Kakuta, maybe Toribami due to her style, but that was about it. Kiryu and Manase also had a long pairing since the former is the bigger of the TJPW team, but she's a bit awkward in the ring, so Manase ended up pinning her after a lariat.

Falls Count Anywhere Match
Hyper Misao vs "Hyper" Sanshiro Takagi - 7/Fun
TJPW's original Announcer Momochi is doing introductions for this match. Prior to the match, Misao cut one of her promos, saying he's taking the 'big' from Takagi's "big" from "president" (trust me, it makes sense if you can read kanji) and show he's just a mean boss.. Takagi came out to Misao's theme too, and yes, he's Hyper Sanshiro today, dressed as Misao, well, to be more precise, he has Misao body paint.

Match started when Misao jumped Takagi and got MIZUHO and Nonoko to help her, who were there to offer Misao flowers for the pre-match ceremonies. In the first minutes, they already built to a clash of the Dramatic Dream Mobile vs The Hero Mobile, followed by Takagi getting attacked by Akane, and then Misao with a really high balcony drop. Really taking advantage of the 'Anywhere' part of the stipulation.

Misao took the bike spot into the tower of chairs spot that originally made her love with wrestling when Takagi did it on the streets of Tokyo many years ago. Finish came after, when Misao dodged a plancha by Takagi, who came down on some plastic boxes, and Misao followed with a plancha for the pin. This was crazy, I love it.

Post-match - Both Misao and Takagi had speeches for each other. Misao reminded Takagi is the president, but he should never stop being the Peter Pan of DDT. Takagi put over Misao as an inspiration and as being a real Hero and you have to keep on going forward, putting smiles on faces. After that speech, they played Takagi's theme, so Misao stunned him instead so they would play hers.

ASUKA vs Yuki Kamifuku - 6.5/10
These is a match between best friends and tag partners, and surprise surprise, there is no heat between them, they just wanted to wrestle each other after failing to become the number one contenders for the tag titles during the Max Heart tournament. They both went all out with their entrances, ASUKA had a dance number, while Kamiyu had a biker entrance.

With them being friends, there were a lot of tricking each other into lowering their guard. Kamiyu early on kept complementing ASUKA's hair before chopping here, and later on, ASUKA played possum and acted like being hurt to lure in Kamifuku. ASUKA remained dominant for most of the match, but Kamiyu did have a lot of offense, especially in desperation, like when she locked in the Octopus stretch, and hit the 1st Fame-asser. ASUKA would end up winning after she countered the Avalanche Fame-asser and followed with a moonsault.

Post-match - Both embraced before heading to the back.

Angela Performance - Prior to the match, they showed a video of the Sisters asking Atsuko and Katsu of Angela to play them in to the ring. And so, they had Angela have a musical performance prior to their match.

BAKURETSU Sisters Collide!
Nodoka Tenma vs Yuki Aino - 7/10
This is another match between loving tag partners, and it's a first time match, but this one does have a sad aftermath, as Nodoka Tenma is to graduate (read as retire) at the end of the month, and wanted to end her career versus her long time partner. I can't think of many cases where the two opponents to match shared the entrance.

Match was strong, Tenma dominated most of the match, but as they went on, Aino made a comeback until she got the win on her Sister. The action wasn't super exciting, but seeing the intensity and knowing the story, it all connected perfectly.

NEO Biishiki-gun (Sakisama, Mei Saint-Michel, Martha and Yukio Saint-Laurent) vs Ram Kaicho, Marika Kobashi, Raku and Pom Harajuku - 7/10
The interesting things here are that this is the first match Martha has had in a couple of years, so Sakisama came out with the whole family for this match. In addition, this is also the first time that we'll see NBG and Ram Kaicho in the ring together, while it could be inconsequential, I just wanted to see the interaction.

Biishiki-gun's entrance saw Sakisama bring out the WHOLE family, Azusa Christie, Au Shimizu, Kanna, even Misao was there.

Match mostly worked around everyone's gimmicks, from Raku's Oyasumi Express, to YSL's needles, Martha's broom arsenal, and a couple of straight up wrestling sequences. At one point, we saw Ram Kaicho hit her Rammaker, and feed Sakisama to Kobashi's guillotine, but Sakisama reached the ropes, and after a broom-assisted Meteora by MSM, Sakisama got the win with an Elegant boot.

Post-match - Sakisama gave Marika a rose, who considered tearing it up, but kept it instead. Marika is has also announced that she is soon to retire, but I'll keep this as hope that she'll join NBG instead.

TJPW Show announcements - We got a couple of future dates including a Go Go Do It at EDION arena in May, and Summer Sun Princess '22 at Ota Ward Gymansium in July.

Hikaru Shida vs Hikari Noa - 7/10
Legendary ring announcer Tanaka Kero did the introductions for this match. Noa came out with a new Ric Flair level robe for her entrance.

Match was good, I'm not really sure what I expected, but I think it delivered how it should. They made a big deal about Shida being an 'AEW superstar', like if it was such a big thing. Since Noa is becoming the hardcore wrestler of TJPW, they did some spots with weapons early on before getting back in the ring, and once there, the match did get considerably better. Story built around Shida injuring Noa's back to the point that she couldn't hold a bridge or even superkick Shida, which gave Shida the opening to hit the Falcon Arrow for the win.

Post-match - As SHida walked to the back, she pointed, challenging, to Aja Kong, who was on commentary for this match.

International Princess Championship Match
Maki Itoh (c) vs Yuki Arai - 4/10*
The battle of the fired Idol and the currently employed and successful idol. In a bit poetic, Itoh had the super idol entrance, with backup dancers for her usual entrance.

This is probably the first time that I find the need to have a footnote on the rating of a match, I honestly don't think that Itoh deserved a 4 out of 10, her wrestling looked great, her timing was good, her intensity and selling were spot on, and she worked the layout of the match quite well. Problem comes when we look at Arai, her wrestling is abysmal, her timing is subpar, and her selling is just ok. Itoh carried her to somewhat of a match, but seeing Itoh have to go all over the place to cover and make Arai's offense work was just too much. Bless Itoh's professionalism for going all out to make it work. Finish saw the Itoh Deluxe to tap out Arai.

Post-match - In the most violent thing to happen in the match, Itoh offered a hand shake to Arai, forcing her to acknowledge that even if Arai has her idol career, Itoh is the fucking Intl Champion.

Princess Tag Team Championship Match
Magical Sugar Rabbits (Yuka Sakazaki and Mizuki) (c) vs Daydream (Rika Tatsumi and Miu Watanabe) - 9/10
Yet another match were the participants went all out on the entrances, Daydream came out in a platform being carried to the ring, while MSR had a 'flying carpet' before going around the venue with other type of platforms.

I think the match of the night will fall between this and the main event for most people. I personally found this to be excellent and just slightly better. Story was just about two teams willing to go all out to end the night as the champions, and thus we got a action packed back and forth match, where both teams really gave it their all. Both teams have incredible tag work and technique, so the match kinda became a contest between the single's ability of each woman. Miu was the powerhouse, Tatsumi the technique, Mizuki the speed, and Sakazaki the experience and resilience.

In addition, they played around with the story that the last time Sakazaki and Tatsumi fought, Tatsumi defeated Sakazaki to win the Princess of Princess title back in 2020, so they had a fantastic pair up between the two, but at the end, it was the Rabbits that managed to survive with the titles after Sakazaki pinned Tatsumi with the Magical Girl Chicken Dude after a foot stomp assist from Mizuki.

Princess of Princess Championship Match
Miyu Yamashita (c) vs Shoko Nakajima - 8.5/10
The main event was great, but I did feel a slight disconnect with the story being told, and how the finish came about. The story of the match started early on when Yamashita caught Nakajima with a kick to the head, as Nakajima was going for a dive. Nakajima sold being knocked out, but managed to make it back to the ring before the count of 20. From there on, the whole match was the story of Yamashita going after Nakajima's head, and the latter just kept kicking out and not giving up. The build up to this match had been about Nakajima thinking that she could not overcome Yamashita and that this could possibly be her last chance to win the title, so she was going to kick out of everything Yamashita threw at her.

From there on, the match was great, tons of heat, tons of heart, tons of good wrestling and Nakajima's comeback, but that last one is where I don't fully connect with the story. Nakajima made her comeback, a strong one, and she did managed to cause a lot of damage to Yamashita, but then after taking 98% of Yamashita's signature kicks to the head, she dodges the final one, hits a DDT and a top rope senton and wins. My problem lies with having to sell being knocked out and all this head trauma, I don't think you can just continue and win decisively like that against a Yamashita that could most definitely keep going. Seconds prior to the pin, there was a great roll-up that could had been the perfect desperation win, that builds to a second match where Nakajima wins proper.

Post-match - Nakajima had a long speed for Yamashita, telling her that she will surpass her. Then she closed the show with the rest of the TJPW roster, who all got to say thanks to on the microphone, one by one.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Overall, it was a great great show, just tons of fun top to bottom, and the roster most definitely went all out to make it feel like a special show.
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