Kim's match reviews and pop culture emporium

 we start off this bout with a sneak attack by Galactica which responds to with appropriate ferocity. Jaguar wins the strike exchanges and eventually gets Galactica to ringside via an over-the-top back body drop. this back body drop ends up being a mistake because by going to ringside Jaguar opens herself up to shenanigans. Big thing strategically is this the first impact on the arm early in this match and as Jaguar prepares herself to reenter the ring we see her shaking her arm out. Interestingly Galactica is seemingly of two minds cause she vacillates a little between working the arm as a means to gain a foothold and using it as her primary target. the deciding factor is that when given the opportunity Jaguar can still win head to head exchanges at this point there's copious use of nunchucks alongside two instances of smashing the shoulder into the ringpost and attacking the shoulder while the arm is wrapped around the top rope causing it to bleed. Galactica goes full vampiric in...

 the heels attack before the introductions though enough decorum is restored that we do get the intros but the assault continues after the bell rings. Chigusa was cut in the pre match attack and the heels target it with gusto. Becoming a bigger fan of Crane yu as we go on love a heel who goes after a cut to the point of biting it. the faces get multiple false dawns in the first fall but the attrition and the numbers game end up in a heel win. The faces still struggle in the second but get the critical moments of offense on Crane Yu to get the pin. Match breaks down in the third both teams try to capitalize the heels cut Chigusa's hair again adding fuel to the fire for the blowoff and eventually the heels get the pin on Chigusa. Great stuff the key difference in ajw pre boom and post boom is willingness to send it as an institution. love this 9/10

 This match took me a bit longer to get through than i expected it to. It's a really fun structure with a really even body with Jaguar taking the edge the mat end of things in terms of winning exchanges. Neither worker is shabby on the mat by any means and Devil Masami feels like there's a clearer blueprint to her strategy of starting on the arm to get a hold into the match leading to eventual end game focus on the back and the head. Jaguar shifts things up more but in retrospect that makes sense this promotion does not have a lot of single limb focus sort of stuff as part of its narrative repertoire. The match ends up shifting via devil's use of her greater strength and heel chicanery targeting the head back and abdomen. Yokota makes a comeback using her agility and guile leading to a pinfall victory for the champ. if there's two minor critiques i'd make is that there's an early military press slam in the match that a part of my brain can't but think should...

 Attempt at an ambush from the duo of Hori and Omori which is countered immediately short burst of control which can't be maintained for long by Yokota and Masami leading to an extended face in peril segment on Yokota targeting her midsection. Not much to say it's what you expect Hori and Omori have the field tilt for the vast majority of the runtime but Yokota and Masami have the key offense in the critical moments to get the win. really fun even with the ceiling i'm feeling from these face vs face tags. 7.7/10

 Bull tries to start out with a sneak attack in typical fashion but it backfires leading to an initial burst of explosive offense from Yamazaki. It turns pretty quickly into an extended face in peril sequence with a really good level of viciousness and some lucha tendencies with the biting as a heel. I do think i'm rediscovering what i liked about Yamazaki prior to this disk via this match. she has a short comeback that's cut off quickly when she messes up her knee in a dive. The beatdown continues leading to a dq win for Yamazaki after which she gives up the title with the stated focus of targeting the tag titles. I really enjoy the way Yamazaki plays the canny clever more agile technician even if that word is so vague it's kinda useless though i don't think of any AJW wrestler as a submission specialist I do like the way she works holds. Really impressive from both workers. 8/10

 first time seeing both Ogura and komatsu as far as i can recall. the first fall rests on a knife's edge for a good portion of it as both teams can't really get sustained control. Jaguar Yokota ends up being the deciding factor in the first fall. the veteran trio for lack of a better phrase tries to take advantage but the other trio is able to focus down komatsu to take falls 2 and 3. the young lions are both really fun and energetic and show they can take as well as they give here. Jaguar's punches are underrated really fun stuff most fun i've had in a bit actually. 7.7/10

 Had a better time with this tag match even if I still feel a tad unconvinced by the jumping bomb angels. Their initial control in the first fall is tenuous and when the crush girls get their burst of offense in it feels like they'll take the fall. Surprisingly the angels take the fall with a dive followed by a double team ending in a piledriver. The crush girls take the second after a failed attempt by the angels to take advantage. Things break down in the third ending with a German suplex win for chigusa. Still iffy on jumping bomb angels. though I wonder if that's on them or the footage situation in pre boom period stuff meaning they are absent for a bit which makes it hard to jump in here without feeling like they come out of left field. 7.5/10

 not a show review just kind of my overall thoughts on cmll through two and a half weeks of watching. At risk of putting it on a pedestal arena mexico has this mix of big arena vibes mixed with a sense of still being intimately connected to their local area and community. kinda vibes like a soccer stadium more so than a north american sports arena. loving it am i still in the honeymoon phase yes. will i milk the joy as much as possible in dark times? absolutely. now i have thoughts about why lucha never got the push puro did historically but i'll save that for potentially another piece

 Another great encounter between these two and la galactica would easily be pick at the moment for most improved from my first impression of her. I don't think there's enough footage of her thanks to her being as far as i know a UWA talent to get her on the ballot overall unless there's been an upsurge in the amount of UWA footage available and I'm just not aware. The match kind of goes as you'd expect it to with galactica taking control on the mat and eventually upping the pace with Jaguar gushing red eventually. There's an early strike exchange before the mat control begins though if i were to nitpick this I'd say that galactica was so firmly in control that when she upped the pace felt a tad arbitrary even though to be fair it's great in how it's executed. Jaguar makes the comback with a suplex. 8.5/10