(2022-05-08 OZ Academy District of Dystopia) Hikaru Shida, Hiroyo Matsumoto & Rina Yamashita vs Maya Yukihi, Mayumi Ozaki & Saori Anou

[SirEdger]

My first incursion into OZ as it seems like heading into the match, Shida was unveiled as a mystery partner for Matsumoto & Yamashita. Matsumoto & Yamashita enter the match as OZ Academy tag team champions. And it seems as well like the memo for this match is it's "Beat Up Yamashita Even If She's Your Tag Team Partner" as Shida immediately whacks Yamashita with her kendo stick upon entering the ring - which prompts everyone to beat her up to start the match - which is contested under 2 out of 3 Falls rules. The mistreatment of Yamashita even by her partners is a recurrent theme in the match, including a Tower of Doom Spot as Yamashita is attempting a superplex in the corner and Matsumoto comes to grab her and after a few moments of arguing, Matsumoto powerbombs her on the mat. I don't know if it was to give some big time feel to it but for the first half of the match, Hikaru Shida is rather absent as the tags revolve around Matsumoto and Yamashita. The elder of the match, Mayumi Ozaki, spends a relatively good chunk of time in the ring throughout the match but her offense mostly is comprised of strikes from the backhanded variety and constantly using her chain while Yukihi and Anou are gonna use their whips on a few occasions  - which will eventually incite Shida to interjerct herself and start using her kendo stick on a few occasions. The heels get the first fall of the match after pounding on Yamashita for the most part and later on, Matsumoto gets to tie it up for her team, heading into the 3rd and final fall. As the match progresses, it looks like Yamashita is gaining the confidence of her partners but the end comes after Ozaki uses the Red Mist to blind Yamashita and score the victorious fall for her team.

I mostly got into this match because I wanted to see what Shida was doing in Japan while she wasn't being used in AEW and I thought it was a fun little match. Given it was my first time watching an OZ match, I probably would've been more into all the shenanigans if I had watched other footage from the promotion earlier but it didn't deter me from enjoying what I saw. I'll try to seek out other matches from Shida's recent excursion back in Japan.