Cero Reviews TJPW 8th Tokyo Princess Cup 7.31

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Cero Reviews TJPW 8th Tokyo Princess Cup 7.31

Post by cero2k » Aug 9th, '21, 23:27

TJPW 8th Tokyo Princess Cup, Day 5
July 31st, 2021
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan

Mahiro Kiryu, Moka Miyamoto & Yuki Kamifuku vs. Kaya Toribami, Mirai Maiumi & Pom Harajuku - 4.5/10
Match was ok, nothing special. Enjoyed most of it, even Pom looked better than usual, and she even got the win with Pom of Justice over Miyamoto.

Hyper Misao vs. Nodoka Tenma vs. Haruna Neko - 5/10
This was your second match in the card comedy match. Misao organized some stuff with Tenma and Neko doing a spoof of the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Later on, she pretended to be the referee of her own match when the referee took a bump. At the end, she won with HyperMi Returns. This was ok for what it was.

Arisu Endo, Marika Kobashi & Nao Kakuta vs. Up Up Girls (Hikari Noa & Raku) & Yuki Arai - 5/10
Raku schtick aside, this was good. The Endo/Kobashi/Kakuta team is just a really good combo, so there were really no bad pairings in this match, any of them are good enough to carry Arai, any of them against Noa is quality stuff, and when Raku is wrestling seriously, she's as good as anyone in the match. Noa won with the Blizzard Suplex.

Tokyo Princess Cup 2021 Quarter Final Match
Maki Itoh vs. Suzume - 6.5/10
I really liked this match, but I can accept that the talent is green. Suzume was out there doing her best to take on someone that was just way over her level, so she played the desperate "gotta take her down before she gets control" role quite nicely. Itoh recovered from Suzume's jump attack eventually, and got the win with Itoh Punish.

The big thing about this match was unfortunately that Itoh got injured halfway through the match. Suzume hit a plancha to the floor and I don't fully know how she landed, but Itoh's face was busted, she suffered an incomplete fracture on her cheekbone. After the plancha, Kamiyu, who was in base duties sold hurting her hand, so there is a chance that she may had accidentally hit Itoh when she caught Suzume. Itoh still finished the match and both women did a good job changing some spots so that Itoh was using her other side of the face since she has a lot of head related moves, and Suzume turned all of her dropkicks and moves and focused on the chest instead.

Tokyo Princess Cup 2021 Quarter Final Match
Miu Watanabe vs. Yuki Aino - 6.5/10
Good stuff. Aino got a lot of offense here, and I think that ended up being a bit of thing for some of these tournament matches, with the loser getting a lot of offense. With Aino, I think it was really necessary to make her look as strong as possible, since she didn't have a lot of chances to making it past here, by all means, making it to the quarter finals was a bit more than I expected for her.

The thing I liked the most about this match was that Aino being one of the bigger women in the roster, at least bigger than Watanabe, she made Miu look great for her powerhouse style. Watanabe's offense looked far more impressive when done on someone like Aino, the main example being the awesome Bear Hug into a Giant Swing, that legit takes some power to not only spin, but hold Aino as she has to slide back for the swing. Something also that helped this match, which was completely by coincidence, was that by the end of the match, Miu's hair was all messy, which doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's kinda rare for her to look tired after her matches, she's just a really strong athlete. Miu won with the Teardrop.

I do have to mention the Venus DDT on the apron from Aino, it was as close as I got to to believe that Aino was going over.

Tokyo Princess Cup 2021 Quarter Final Match
Shoko Nakajima vs. Rika Tatsumi - 7/10
This was the only match that I really wasn't able to predict who was winning, both women are top former champs and credible enough to make it to the finals. I had a personal preference for Rika so we could get another Daydream match, but I have zero issues with Nakajima getting the win.

The match I'd say was the most back and forth of the four tournament matches, and it still saw a lot of Tatsumi working the leg of Nakajima. Finish saw Shoko escape the Dragon Sleeper and win with a top rope Senton.

Tokyo Princess Cup 2021 Quarter Final Match
Miyu Yamashita vs. Mizuki - 8/10
This was really good, top ten from TJPW this year, but you could tell that no matter who wins the tournament, they kept a lot of stuff for an imminent Mizuki vs Yamashita title main event. We did see big things like Mizuki surviving the Return Crash kick that has won her a lot of matches.

Different from other Yamashita matches in the tournament, she looked dominant and strong, but Mizuki got a lot more offense in than Yamashita had received in a while, even counting some of her title defenses prior to the tournament. Or at least, I think it seem like more because Mizuki's offense were bigger spots. It's hard to explain in words, but Mizuki's wrestling and mannerisms in the match both elevated her and Yamashita a bit deals, she made Yamashita look dominant, but at the same time portraying herself on Yamashita's level. The best example I can think of was when Mizuki hit the foot stomp on the tree of woe, after landing it and destroying Yamashita, she sold being tired for the right amount of time, and then immediately followed with a confident crossbody, like selling the damage done by Yamashita, but still being in control of her plan. At the end, she kicked out of the Attitude Adjustment, hit a foot stomp and won with the Cutie Special.

There is a joke that Yamashita is terrible at tournaments, she's never won the TPC, while Mizuki is actually a two-time, back to back winner. But I do love that tournaments are Yamashita's weakness.

Post-match - Mizuki cut her winner's promo talking about how she managed to defeat the monster, how she was jealous of Yamashita sometimes, but she had learned to realize that she had things that Yamashita doesn't, and at the end, sent a little hello to Sakazaki, who should be coming back soon.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Pretty good show, all four tournament matches were good, even though the results were somewhat predictable. The semifinals will be shuffled, so we really don't know what the pairings will be, I have my money on Itoh winning the whole thing, to follow up on the teases between her and Yamashita, so I can imagine she will take on Shoko and Mizuki in either order since both women have strong stories with this tournament, Mizuki being the 2019 and 2020 winner, and Shoko being in 4 of the 8 finals, having won one.
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