Cero Reviews TJPW 8th Tokyo Princess Cup 7.23

[cero2k]

TJPW 8th Tokyo Princess Cup, Day 2
July 23, 2021
Shin-kiba 1st Ring, Tokyo, Japan

Hyper Misao, Nao Kakuta & Shoko Nakajima vs. Mahiro Kiryu, Mirai Maiumi & Moka Miyamoto - 6/10
This was a fun match, much much better than yesterday's opener with a similar lineup. With someone like Kiryu and Maiumi, the team of Misao & Nakajima had a better counterpart to do something good in the ring. Even Miyamoto's ending sequence run was good, ending with her being pinned by Shoko. There was really little play in this match, it was mostly action.

Mizuki vs. Haruna Neko vs. Pom Harajuku - 4/10
And just after praising the last match, now we have Mizuki in her biggest test in her career, trying to get a good match out of Pom and Neko. This was for the most part meh, it wasn't bad or insulting or anything, there was a lot of TJPW style kawaii comedy, Mizuki didn't even spend that much time in the ring and at the end, Neko won.

Raku, Suzume & Yuki Kamifuku vs. 121000000 (Maki Itoh & Miyu Yamashita) & Arisu Endo - 6.5/10
Good stuff, this was a good combination of wrestlers and Raku, who can be easily carried to good stuff. They did some stuff with Itoh vs Raku and Suzume, then let Suzume and Endo do their thing, and ended with Kamifuku getting the win over Endo.

Kamiyu and Yamashita are wrestling tomorrow in the tournament, so Kamiyu was a bit extra hostile against Yamashita.

Tokyo Princess Cup 2021 First Round Match
Miu Watanabe vs. Kaya Toribami - 4/10
Ok match, but nothing to it really, Toribami is the newest rookie (along with Arai), and so there was no doubt that Watanabe would just run over her. Toribami did get some offense in, but Watanabe won without even breaking a sweat.

Tokyo Princess Cup 2021 First Round Match
Yuki Aino vs. Yuki Arai - 5.5/10
Similar situation with the previous match, a really green person that had no chance at winning, so it was just a matter of getting to the expected finish. Arai did get a little bit more time and offense than Toribami did, but not that much, she got a pretty good submission tease with a Sleeper, she went for her Axe Kick, but failed to land it, and it was enough for Aino to get her in a Full Nelson and submit her.

Tokyo Princess Cup 2021 First Round Match
Nodoka Tenma vs. Marika Kobashi - 7/10
This was good, it was a great showcase match that builds and elevates Marika quite a bit. I've been saying that she is great and has a ton of potential, and I think this tournament could be a breakout opportunity for her if she goes long enough without winning it. The match had her both sell, make a comeback, and eventually win, against someone that is not super powered, but already well established as a strong tag team wrestler.

These two had a story going back to when they were kids and training, they debuted together and all, but it didn't really come into play in the match.

Tokyo Princess Cup 2021 First Round Match
Rika Tatsumi vs. Hikari Noa - 8/10
This was great, when it comes to the tournament, this was the first match so far where we had to wrestlers with eagerness to win and chase the title. Noa is an up and comer that is slowly creeping into the main event, she has captured the International title and is developing her own style, she's hungry to jump to the next stage. Tatsumi is the former champion that is also trying to get back into a challenging position and reclaim her title.

The match was all back and forth action, Tatsumi worked the leg and later on kept chasing the hip attack, while Noa started with a brawling approach, but later on would go more into submission work in order to counter Tatsumi's leg work and to keep her from hitting the hip attack. At the end, Tatsumi hit the top rope Hip Attack and won.

Post-match - Rika cut her winner's promo, putting over Noa's improvement and saying that this will be her first Princess Cup win and she will reclaim the title she is missing.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Just like yesterday's show, this is still in that bump area where we have to get over the first round with the mid and lower level wrestlers, and thus was the case with Arai and Toribami. I did think the overall quality was better than yesterday.