Cero Reviews Korakuen Hall 60th Anniversary Festival ~ Joshi Pro-Wrestling Dream Festival

[cero2k]

Korakuen Hall 60th Anniversary Festival ~ Joshi Pro-Wrestling Dream Festival
April 15, 2022
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Kairi Hojo will be on commentary for the show.

Opening - Representatives of Korakuen Hall showed a video showcasing the history of the venue, covering from box, to wrestling, to concerts. Starlight Kid, Ozaki, Tanahashi, and Miyahara all had comments about it. I love videos like these were you have a multi-promotional presence of big names, makes things feel so much bigger than they may be.

Riko Kawahata vs. Maria - 6.5/10
Good opener, Maria looked really good, the more I watch from Maria, the more I like her, she has some presence even as a wrestler who comes out with the minimum amount of 'show'. Kawahata was good too, I'm not super familiar with her, she's in most indie promotions, but this was the first time I saw her in a singles match. The match itself was mostly back and forth until the time limit draw.

Asahi, Crea & Kaho Matsushita vs. Kanon, Madeline & Nanami - 6/10
This was fun. Fast paced wrestling, tons of tags and fun pair ups. I was immediately impressed by Asahi and Madeline, who I hadn't seen before. Kanon and Crea had a good pairing towards the end too, which ended with Kanon tapping out for the loss.

Kaori Yoneyama, Tomoko Watanabe & Yuuki Mashiro vs. Hibiscus Mii, Sakura Hirota & Yuki Miyazaki - 5/10
This was the comedy match. Hirota alone could carry the comedy for the whole show, but with the rest there, it kinda the who's who of Joshi comedy wrestling. We did get some wrestling with Miyazaki here and there, but things would always come back to some sort of comedy spot. At one point, Mii even had a concert. At the end, Miyazaki got he win for her team with a top rope moonsault.

Chie Ozora, Koguma & Manami vs. Lady C, Riko Kaiju & Yuko Sakurai - 6.5/10
I really enjoyed this match, even if the wrestlers aren't all that seasoned, I really enjoyed the team of C, Kaiju, and Sakurai. Manami was really fun and a good opponent for Kaiju, whereas Manami and C had a good pair up themselves. Koguma got the win with a top rope splash on Sakurai.

AKINO, Ayako Sato & Rydeen Hagane vs. Kyoko Inoue, Leon & Sonoko Kato - 6/10
This was your usual Oz Academy style veterans match, with clear babyfaces and heels and a lot of back and forth tagging. It's all good fun wrestling, but it's hard to say that someone in particular was better or the focus, since everyone gets to get their stuff in. Inoue got the pin over Hagane and had most of the offense later in the match.

Ai Houzan & Yurika Oka vs. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) - 7/10
Marvelous vs Seadlinnng in this match. Apart from the opener singles match, this was the first match were I felt like I was watching two parties with their own identities go at each other. This not being a random mix of people and promotions really changed the feeling and made it more competitive.

Match was great, it wasn't long, but it was packed with action. Houzan and Oka had to take on an established tag team, so they mostly took on the defensive side with the exception of a great comeback towards the the end before Nakajima and Fujimoto regained control and won after Nakajima dropped Houzan with a Psycho Suplex.

Haruka Umesaki & Rin Kadokura vs. Cosmic Angels (Mina Shirakawa & Unagi Sayaka) - 7/10
Fun match, and pair up for that matter. Because Kadokura is considered an ass kicker and Umesaki is a total underdog babyface, Cosmic Angels, even if they're not super dominant, they kinda had to work as heels, being cocky and showy. Most of the match was both teams going back and forth, trading control of the match, even up to the final minutes when Shirakawa and Umesaki just went at 100mph trying to get the quick win as time was running out, but unfortunately for both, time indeed ran out and we got a time limit draw.

Post-match - Both teams kept brawling and getting on each other's face.

Maika Ozaki & MIRAI vs. Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) - 8.5/10
They had a well planned hoss fight. Initially, I was worried they would just have a normal hoss fight, which would have looked straight up fake looking, because as big as MIRAI and Ozaki are, they're nothing compared to Hashimoto and Yuu. Instead they had a power versus heart match with MIRAI and Ozaki taking on the onslaught face first and finding ways to get offense in. Eventually, MIRAI's submission proficiency gave her the best chance and near fall of the match, but at the end, Yuu and Hashimoto are just too much for a random team that's teaming for the first time ever. Hashimoto at the end got the win over Ozaki with a bridging German.

Crazy that not a year ago, MIRAI was still that kid from TJPW, now she's in a semi-main against freaking Hashimoto, pushing her to the limit; she's part of the STARDOM red belt champion's new stable, and soon to be crowned. MIRAI is gonna be big.

Post-match - Syuri and Hashimoto got face-to-face, but at the end seem amicable, at least out of respect.

Nagisa Nozaki, SAKI & Takumi Iroha vs. Maya Yukihi, Mayumi Ozaki & Starlight Kid - 8.5/10
This is it, Oz Academy, STARDOM, Color's, Marvelous, and WAVE represented in the main event. Even Oedo Tai are out there helping SLK on the outside. With a combo of Oedo Tai and Ozaki-Gun, this was Gokuaku Domei levels of heel work, with the heel team jumping the babyfaces, getting into a brawl, getting the aid of outsiders, using tons of weapons, including Ozaki's trademark chain, and just straight up destroying the babyfaces for the first two-thirds of the match. A total Ozaki patterned match. The one who took most of the heat was Nozaki.

Eventually Iroha got the hot tag and ran wild, she beat up Yukihi and SLK, but not Ozaki "The Untouchable", but I won't complain, I rather watch Yukihi versus Iroha. When Ozaki came back to the match, she cut off Iroha and worked on her with her chain. Iroha eventually made somewhat of a comeback and tagged out and we finally got a good exchange with SLK and Nozaki. At the end, it came down to SLK and SAKI, and after many near falls, SLK got the win after Ozaki spayed SAKI with a red mist and SLK hit an avalanche Spanish fly. Last 5 minutes or so were really good.

Mayumi Ozaki, making babyfaces look like geeks since 1986, but I would totally pay pay-per-view money to see a singles match with Iroha in a big main event.

Post-match - SLK took the mic and made some challenges to Nozaki. Ozaki then followed, put over her girls in the ring, brought out the rest of the card for the closing ceremony, and then they all took the memorial photo.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Great show, it did a good job at showcasing a bit of Joshi wrestling around the country, but it really was just 'a bit', because we can't just ignore the fact that this is no way near representing the real quality of STARDOM, or Marvelous; it's also not representing the other side of Joshi as TJPW or Actwres girl'Z were not really represented. Nonetheless, it had good wrestling and combos from bell-to-bell and a fun show for anyone curious about getting into Joshi, or at least Joshi beyond STARDOM.