Takumi Iroha

[Grimmas]

kas said: "Lack of footage hurts her but in every match I see from her I come away thinking she was the stand-out performer. She's probably the best offensive wrestler in the world today, with good mat-work, great striking, a varied moveset, and excellent execution (she's a contender for best superkick ever). She's great at changing up her moveset to fit the situation, sometimes going strike heavy and other times emphasising her size and power advantage with big power moves. She's also incredibly selfless and generous, often giving her opponents enough time to shine and bumping big to get them over."

 

Matches

w/Sareee and Nanae Takahashi vs Maria, Mei Hoshizuki, and Mikoto Shindo 07/22/2019 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viV75EHK_JI

vs ASUKA 08/19/2018 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fKIurblUj0&t=1272s

vs Mayu Iwatani 02/08/2020 - https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV147411F78Z/

[Ma Stump Puller]

No brainer for a top 100. Every match I see of her she's either a highlight or one of the top acts in whatever she's in, and she doesn't fall into a lot of the trappings that seem to plague her generation of talent in particular with a lot of false finishes and excessive sequences. Tends to have some mixed results when having to get inferior talent to her level (or at times even close to something like that) but she's still pretty effective at doing so, even getting individuals like Nyla Rose (who usually range to decent to not very good at all) to a fairly good series of matches. Other than that, she's above and beyond when it comes to storytelling and pacing, as well as having some of the best strikes around in the business as OP goes over. 

Maybe her ring quality and overall allure is somewhat enhanced because of her being a considerably big fish in a small pond but she's proven she can handle herself just fine on larger stages numerous times, so I think it's less that and more a case of her just being that good. Cliché, sure, but very much still true.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jetlag]

Trying to see what the hype is all about here...

The first match I watched is vs. Syuri (9/25/2021). I have vowed not to watch another Syuri match, but I will break the vow. This is actually a pretty good match in the first half! They start nice with a snug lock up and a tackle through the rope. Then they do some nice matwork and actually build this slowly. Really nice control segments built around side headlocks and armdrags, with complex sequences to battle over those simple holds. Really liking it and reminds me a bit of Misawa/Kawada from 1992. Iroha likes to kick, and while she has nice form on her spin kick not all of her kicks land well. But Syuri is supposed to be the superior striker, and kicks the snot out of Iroha a few times, so it kind of works to the story of the match. They lose me when they start trading German suplexes and then settle into a rather standard ending stretch before the time runs out. They lost me at the ending, but the first 15 minutes or so had potential and it was better than the movefests STARDOM fans usually recommend.

 

The next match is vs. ASUKA (WAVE 8/19/2018). This is Irohas 2nd highest rated match on Cagematch, so I expect something impressive. Right away ASUKA (who is not Kana but some goth looking girl) rushes Iroha, but Iroha shuts her down quickly. For some reason, they slap their thigh on EVERY kick they throw. There is no shine segment for ASUKA, instead Iroha works on her leg right away. ASUKA fires up and I guess Irohas leg kicks don't hurt her suddenly? ASUKA hits a slap and a kick and she's back on offense. She hits the Toyota dropkick to the outside where she splats hard on the floor and it looks like it hurt herself way more than her opponent. So I guess all that legwork was meaningless. ASUKA didn't really have a shine segment, doesn't sell, wrestles the same as every other indy random, there's nothing to draw me into her. Iroha at least sells a little, although she also keeps slapping her thigh. 5 minutes into this and I really want to turn this off because this is a garbage match so far in my book. Iroha goes back to work on ASUKAS leg for a minute and... ASUKA no sells back to offense with another sloppy move. Iroha hits some kicks that have no impact because she slaps her thigh the same way on every single one of them. Iroha hits a whole bunch of moves that ASUKA kicks out of and then ASUKA ducks a clothesline and its her turn to do moves. 10 minutes in and I'm tapping out, this is trash, no story, no selling, the moves they do aren't interesting. I'm giving Iroha the benefit of the doubt for now as she had nothing to work with here.

 

After that, let's watch Iroha vs. Mayu Iwatani (10/18/2020). It's Irohas highest rated match on Cagematch! That means it's probably gonna be shit, I am tempering my expectations at this point. Iwatani tries to rush with a shitty looking solebutt, but Iroha cuts off the suplex attempt. Not a bad start but I wish these girls did some character work or something to get me into their story instead of just doing moves right away. I also wish Iroha didn't slap her thigh so much. Iroha goes to work on the leg with a Figure 4 right away. I hate it when Japanese workers just slap on a Figure 4, but Iwatani collapses after she makes it to the ropes, so I guess it wasn't completely meaningless. Iwatani transitions back to offense soon, but it was a gradual transition, she didn't just reverse one move and go back to control, she caught Iroha and then had to string a bit more together and survive a strike exchange to get back in control. The legwork ended up meaning nothing as soon she's back to sprinting across the ring to hit suicide dives and what not but I will give credit that they actually did a transition. Iroha hits a superplex which Iwatani no sells to keep control into a chokehold. Iwatani hits a few superkicks in a row where she slaps her thigh really hard. Some more kick exchanges where they absolutely slap the shit out of their thighs. Iwatani eats a couple kicks to her head and does Takaiwa yells. Even though this is getting pretty silly now I will give them some credit, they do a bit of selling and make it look like a struggle to stay on their feet, which prevents this match from turning into an absolute shitshow in my book. Iroha hits a  very nice german suplex. Okay, now they do a strike exchange and now Iwatani is smiling when Iroha hits her? Iroha is actually selling though and Iwatani tags her with a nasty boot and that was the first strike in the match I gave a fuck about. Iwatani with the tombstone piledriver for a nearfall and now she is in control, Iroha is struggling and Iwatani is kicking her. How will Iroha comeback from this beating? She stands up, shoves Iwatani across the ring and hits a fast thigh slapping kick combo, so that was easy, I guess. They settle into the big move trading finishing run now. There are some impressive death moves and I liked how Iwatani kept rana-ing Iroha to counter her powerbombs. I wish Iroha had retaliated against Iwatani with some nasty strikes but she just kept hitting the same thigh slapping kicks she had been doing since the beginning of the match. The finish is bad as Iroha drops Iwatani on her head with a crucifix bomb - the deadliest looking move in the match - and Iwatani rolls her up for the 3. I will give them some credit, they did some good work and both girls were very expressive drawing me into the match, but whenever I was getting into it some silly shit occurred and pulled me right out.

 

Finally, on to Iroha vs. Chihiro Hashimoto (Marvelous 1/10/22). Hashimoto is someone I actually like, so, it's probably wise for me to watch this. Wait, why the hell is Hashimoto not nominated? This is WAY more my speed of match. Slow beginning that establishes Hashimoto as a dominant force. There's matwork, Hashimoto busts out some cool holds and makes a nice cut off with a big body block and works Irohas back a bit. Iroha is good here with her selling, she doesn't just pop up when it's time to make a transition, she keeps selling even after she hits a move and draws the viewer in, the sign of a good worker. The transition is Hashimoto lariats the turnbuckle, which is a bit bog standard, but Iroha does a nice job working the arm, hitting a cool snap Fujiwara armbar at this point. I am not nitpicking this match because there's really nothing to nitpick, it's just really solid and they build well to the ending run. This is also the most I've been into Irohas strikes, since they are actually well timed here, I just wish she stopped slapping her thigh so much because it makes them look way worse. Hashimotos gigantic suplexes rule. The finishing run is generic, but because they built to it and took their time, Irohas moves like the powerbombs and her Swanton Bomb actually feel like moments and just moves that are thrown out. But the ending... the ending is really bad. Hashimoto slips out of another Iroha powerbomb attempt and locks in this badass sleeper (which Iroha sells great, eyes zoning out and all), then hits another gargantuan suplex. It was a great moment, but then Iroha gets up smiling, no-selling all that completely, and just hits another powerbomb where she almost kills Hashimoto dropping her on her head/neck badly. It was building to a really good match but holy hell that ending pissed me off.

 

So yeah, very mixed reaction to Iroha here. I should probably seek out more stuff like that Hashimoto match, even though the ending left me really sour. I am not seeing anything that suggests no brainer Top 100 All Time worker or the stuff that other people have praised, but there is some promise.

[Reel]

My only experience with Iroha was when I watched the whole 5* Grand Prix last year. I liked a total of 2 matches in that entire tournament, and I'm willing to pin that on me not liking the style because people seemed to love it, but at no point did Iroha stand out to me at all.

I brought Chihiro up in some other thread, and the only reason I didn't nominate her is I was waiting for someone else who is a bigger Joshi fan to do it, but she for sure needs a thread. 

[kas]

Here are some more matches that I consider great. If you don't like these then I don't think you're gonna enjoy her on the whole.

Vs Mayu Iwatani 02/08/2020 - https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV147411F78Z/

Vs Mio Momono 11/03/2019 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovQxvCKJeao&ab_channel=Marvelousプロレス公式チャンネル

 

Vs Chihiro Hashimoto 11/28/2021 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMq9RCLgYKw&ab_channel=SENDAIGIRLSPRO-WRESTLING

Vs Arisa Nakajima 09/18/2019 - https://vk.com/video-4499945_456243754 (Go to 2:11:00)

Vs Kairi Hojo 07/04/2015 - https://vk.com/video583713338_456239457

Vs Nanae Takahashi 05/29/2019 - https://vk.com/video-4499945_456243356 (1:22:00)

 

Also @Jetlag I know you've vowed never to watch another Syuri match, but you might enjoy this one against Kana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmcVnFE6LEE&t=1289s&ab_channel=women'swrestlingjapan