match reviews

 Jumbo comes in with her back still taped up. Love the attention to detail continuity wise with regards to injuries during the japan cup. Of interest is Crane yu once again serving as referee for this bout. Dump is preoccupied with crane to begin with allowing jumbo to get the jump on her via dropkick. That doesn't lead to sustained offense unfortunately as very quickly the numbers game takes effect with dual focus on Hori's head and back along with some nasty opportunistic biting of the arm by Nakano. Jumbo's lifeline in this one ends up being her strength in a power move sense alongside crane finally snapping at all the abuse she's taken since retiring and actively trying to help Jumbo win. Unfortunately it backfires giving dump the critical opening to secure the 3. This feels like the most dump has been written like a bigger worker in terms of folks struggling to lift her which is really interesting. 9/10

 I'm kind of surprised by how I'm feeling about this one going to put that feeling out front. I was expecting to like this more than I did. Devil gets taken down by a leg sweep and gets put in an armbar but Chigusa  can't capitalize. The devil gets the submission of note here in the form of a bow and arrow lock. the overall dynamic of the match being devil having the edge on the mat pretty solidly while Chigusa is able to get off more big shots though devil ends up winning via rollup. All the components are here for an 8 except time. And in this case the lack of time really hurt my experience of the match. I liked a lot of the individual aspects that both workers were going for but the whole match felt far too compressed to let things breath properly 7/10 The thing I appreciate about the Japan Grand prix at large is it gives the singles scene between the natives some structure and a sense of body that mostly felt absent at least imo in the pre boom period stuff. Can't w...

 The alliance are challenging here with Crane Yu as the referee for this matchup. Bold choice to have the new ref officiating a title match. Bull and dump get control pretty early and maintain it for a decent portion of the first fall by targeting Chigusa's banged up leg. The faces get in bits offense but what seals the fall in the babyface's favor is the big moments going their way. the second fall essentially consists of the babyfaces trying to follow up getting beaten up with Chigusa's arm and head being a target leading to a heel win via piledriver. The third fall breaks down as does the heel challengers focus on the champions Asuka is able to get the telling flurry off on Bull Nakano cause dump was too preoccupied with beating up Crane Yu at ringside. Karma And Chef Kiss worthy 9/10

 Much more evenly matched fight for this one. While it's not a mirror matchup by any means you can certainly see early on that their bases are rather similar which figures given they are tag partners. Both workers get off near misses with strikes but the story for the body is asuka trying to comeback from the hole that is her wounded knee. Match ends in a time limit dra after a finishing stretch of bomb trading. 8/10

 Tateno starts quickly with a barrage of three dropkicks. Itsuki responds promptly with a massive barrage of six. The match settles down a tad with yamazaki taking the lead and keeping it for the bulk of the match. Tateno tries to battle on the mat a couple of times but that is never sustained. The interesting thing about this match is how one sided it feels especially for a match between tag partners like Tateno gets these bursts of really impactful offense like a great tope to the outside but she feels really outgunned strategy wise throughout. And strategically outgunned in a where unlike previous matches Yamazaki is mostly single mindedly focused on the head instead of a multiprong strategy. I love the meanness in her performance. The match ends in a battle of springboard sunset flips with Yamazaki coming out the winner. 7.7/10

 Interpromotional feud week at cmll. Fun stuff but personally for me a bit of a meh week for cmll solo advancement. Though I will admit if I were actively invested in mlw the synergy would be peak. The thing that actively caught my mind was my reaction to Yutani and Okumura on the Saturday show. The fact that they are used as heels and given the history of Japanese workers in the states being used as nebulous heel figures with varying degrees of racialized aesthetics and i found myself thinking this should bug me and yet it doesn't.... why? it makes me realize i've never fully written down the things about the oriental heel archetype in wrestling bugs me. the part of it as a young person the racialization plus the rarity of face presences kind of tied into the creeping realization of the otherness of the east asian american experience specifically the lack of us our lives and experiences on screen and on page in the 2000s. it lead to a strange mixture of excitement at seeing so...