[2016-07-02-Sendai Girls] Meiko Satomura vs Io Shirai

[donsem43]

This is another match between these two, instead this time it's for Satomura's Sendai Girls Title rather than the World of Stardom Title. I actually liked this match more than their December match. I thought the selling here was was better. The match did lack some of the drama that the last Stardom match had but overall it was a well put together title match. Another strong match at from two of the best in the world. ****1/4

[WingedEagle]

The first half of this was perfectly competent and solid, but really didn't rise above that at all and you very much had the sense that they were going through the motions to fill in the allotted time. Then comes the back half with a finishing stretch where before you blink the big moves and near falls enter the picture, but more importantly, the pacing and selling accompany them so that almost everything has time to register and matter. I don't know that I've watched more than a handful of joshi from this decade, but if there's more out there along these lines I'll need to catch up. Shirai brought the flash but Satomura held it together and lived up to some of the praise I've seen thrown her way. They really worked one hell of a finishing stretch. ****1/4

[soup23]

A very good 2/3 to set the table and then an action packed final stanza to drive the match home. I really appreciated the way Shirai brought the fight to Satomura and that was evidenced in the perspiration that Satomura had. The final moments with the struggle for the bombs and the excellent striking was really gripping stuff. Neck and neck with Sato vs. Kong as the best joshi match I have seen this year. ****

[GOTNW]

Really loved the opening, a long Satomura control segment with her working good looking holds and repeteadly cutting Io off was a joy to watch. It was amazing to see how much they got out of a Boston Crab-I don't remember ever seeing the wrestler that's about to be stretched fight off so desperately with vicious slaps. There was also a sequence early on that was just phenomenal as they would tease traditional transitions and have them fail one after another. Match lost a little steam once it was time for Io to shine, her lucha inspired offence looked good and I was really pleasantly surprised with her knee based offence, still setting those up meant the match couldn't be as compact as it was early on. Finishing stretch was great, with Satomura busting all sorts of vicious kicks and an epic finish with Io desperately trying to grab the ropes or make Satomura lose control of her before being put away with a vicious DVB. ****

[Matt D]

This was terribly good. I've seen my share of Satomura over the years but never enough to really stick. I have a general sense of her but couldn't give you too many specifics. I have less of that for Shirai, who I've heard the hype for and maybe have seen a match or two but I don't even have the general sense.

The opening matwork was tremendous, with such natural and organic progression from one hold to the next, both women really bringing it. They mixed quick strikes, blocks, and reversals in with more struggle-based holds. The bit where Shirai finally got a crab after being in one herself was very novel, as she locked in the crab, had to settle for a half crab once Satomura started struggling, and then cinched up the Texas Cloverleaf after that all in the most smooth yet believable way that you see with the best lucha maestro matwork.

I hadn't expected Shirai to take the brunt of the match so viciously (let's face it, she's the one who came in with the cutesy mask and Satomura was all business; after the fact I figured out she was booked as a monster who had already beaten Satomura once, but coming in, I had no idea) but it really worked so well. She came in prepared for Satomura's kicks and suplexes and was able to cut both off in interesting fashion, utilizing dragon whips, and the best leg-grab-through-her own-legs-and-right-into-the-nastiest-hold counter to a German. I liked that she waited so long to target the leg too, because she was able to own that control segment, creating the impression that instead of taking the most opportunistic route, she really wanted to make a point, utilizing brutal foot choking, landing numerous knees (some of them set up in a contrived way that worked because of how quickly she managed it and how much impact she was able to hit it with. When she did something contrived, she made it seem like it would actually work better than the simple version, which is far rarer than you'd think), and stubbornly going back to her moonsault to the floor when it almost cost her in the first attempt.

Satomura only got back into the match after a long choke, one that within the confines of the match, worked well. You had the sense, through the sharp contrast to what came before and through Shirai's selling, that she really lost her wind through it. You don't usually see that. It was great because by this point in the match, it was established that Satomura wasn't going to be able to come back with kicks and suplexes alone. Even then, once Shirai was able to shake it off, there was still the sense that she was the more dominant one in the match. Satomura really had to fight back. There were a lot of bombs towards the end but between the effort in hitting them (and the struggle and desperation to block them), the selling, physical and emotional, and just enough space being put between them, I picked up a sufficient sense of escalation and weight.

I think ultimately that's what was most striking to me. I'm used to watching these quite good Charlotte matches where we remark on them making sure to sell in a key moment or which have a certain sharp transition, or maybe a spotlight little touch like repeated punches to the leg in a submission, something like that. You get the sense that those bits are carefully planned and choreographed. They're satisfying because they're still somewhat rare in WWE in general and in WWE's women's matches over the decades in particular, but here there seems to be something like that in every exchange, not as anything spotlight but just as the commonplace norm that comes from wrestlers having mastery of their craft.

I am always very hesitant to judge a match when I don't have proper context. I haven't seen much Shirai. I don't remember much Satomura. I certainly didn't see their match from the previous December. So, I'm not necessarily going to say HOW good this was, but I'm quite confident in saying that it WAS good.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Started off with a fantastic Satomura control segment - that really ruled. It felt like every time Io got something in, Meiko cut her off. I loved Io's big comeback where she got to get her stuff in - love watching her on the offense. The finishing stretch was fantastic as well, and it felt like the meat of the match truly built to it, which is always a big positive. Great match. ****