Cero Reviews TJPW Yes! Wonderland 2021 - We are Still In The Middle Of Our Dreams!

[cero2k]

TJPW Yes! Wonderland 2021 - We are Still In The Middle Of Our Dreams!
May 4th, 2021
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Introductions - With no fans, instead of starting with the usual fan interaction, they instead had tonight's competitors cut promos prior to the start. Rika Tatsumi, Yuki Kamifuku, BeeStar, Itoh & Endo, Miyu Yamashita, Hikari Noa, and Watanabe and the debuting Yuki Arai. So pretty much everyone involved in a big match tonight.

We still had an Up Up Girls presentation.

Haruna Neko & Pom Harajuku vs. Mahiro Kiryu & Moka Miyamoto - 4/10
Match was ok, better than your usual Harajuku/Neko match. Harajuku actually got the win over Miyamoto. I think Harajuku should turn heel and stop smiling so much.

Marika Kobashi, Nao Kakuta & Raku vs. BAKURETSU Sisters (Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino) & Hyper Misao - 6/10
I wasn't expecting much from this match, mostly comedy, but it ended up being quite good. The BAKURETSU Sisters and Misao side seemed a bit too OP, but Marika and Raku really stepped it up here, there was no Raku comedy. At the end, Tenma pinned Marika with a Killswitch.

Miu Watanabe & Yuki Arai vs. Arisu Endo & Maki Ito - 5/10
Arai is making her debut in this match, she is the newest idol turned wrestler. Per the story, she was trained by Miyu Yamashita and Miu Watanabe, her partner today.

Arai did well for her debut, she looked competent for a first match, her selling was strong, which was what she did the most, as she was the babyface in peril for most of the match. She did manage to hit her Axe kick on Itoh as the big climax of the match, but the pin was broken up. Watanabe looked great as a hot tag, and Itoh looked good torturing Arai until she made her submit with the Itoh Deluxe. Quite a productive match.

Post-match - Itoh cut a promo on Arai, pretty much telling her to get better and come after her. Arai then thanked TJPW for her first match.

Princess Of Princess Title #1 Contendership 3-Way Match
Shoko Nakajima vs. Mizuki vs. Yuka Sakazaki - 7.5/10
The did the Magical Sugar Rabbits alliance spot, but it only lasted about a minute, so I wasn't annoyed at it, it actually made me chuckle because they straight up did a spot with Sakazaki waiting outside the ropes waiting for a tag.

Overall, this was a fun match that had a weak finish. With the exception of a short Mizuki vs Nakajima sequence, this was mostly 3-person spots bell to bell, many of them pin attempts. There was a lot of play between the Sugar Rabbits with Sakazaki getting annoyed that Mizuki would try to sneak pins on her, and so Sakazaki would retaliate. At the end, Nakajima had a pin on Mizuki after a German, but Sakazaki ran in, got Nakajima in the Koromogawa pin, and won.

Yuka Sakazaki challenges the winner of Yamashita vs Tatsumi at CyberFight Fest.

International Princess Championship Match
Yuki Kamifuku (c) vs. Hikari Noa - 6.5/10
This got unnecessarily violent really quickly, within minutes, they started brawling outside the ring with Kamiyu going head first into the barricade and Noa getting slammed onto a pile of chairs.

For a Kamiyu match, this was one of her better ones. Once they got back in the ring from that extreme rules opening, the match got really good. It was back and forward, a lot of kicking from Kamiyu, and a lot of submission and kicking from Noa. Noa on with the Blizzard Suplex Hold.

I'm ok with this title change, Noa has been busting her ass, working really hard for the last couple of months, and has improved a lot. Kamiyu is great in her own way, but she's not that ready to carry a title and for people to expect workrate from her.

Princess Tag Team Championship Match
NEO Biishiki-gun (Mei Saint-Michel & Sakisama) (c) vs. BeeStar (Mirai Maiumi & Suzume) - 8/10
The team of BeeStar is not super strong or in the upper echelon of teams in TJPW, but this was still a good strong first defense for MSM and Sakisama. BeeStar was a good counterpart for NBG, with Suzume pairing up with MSM and Sakisama with Maiumi, and for that matter, having the component of MSM being stronger than Suzume, but Maiumi being stronger than MSM, it added a lot of dynamic storytelling depending on how they played with the tags. At the end, it came down to MSM and Suzume, with the former getting the win by using the Saint-Michel submission on Suzume.

Princess Of Princess Championship Match
Rika Tatsumi (c) vs. Miyu Yamashita - 9/10
This was a great, reasonable timed match. This only went about 15 minutes, and it was the right amount of time for the story told. Tatsumi tried to work Yamashita's legs to stop her from kicking, but as the match went on, and she couldn't cripple Yamashita, she changed her game and tried to go for her head, but it was too late, through all that time, Yamashita had been working Tatsumi's head with kicks, and the damaged had piled up more than it had on Yamashita's head as they headed to the end, ending with a Crash Rabbit Heat from Yamashita for the win. Both women were fantastic.

I can't escape the feeling that this title change was done for the sole purpose of booking Sakazaki vs Yamashita at CyberFight Fest. I totally get it, it's a huge show for TJPW and they want to have their two top wrestlers in the title match, but it just feels like the sacrificed Tatsumi's title run, that had been quite good so far, for a one night showcase. TJPW is a legitimate reason why CyberFight is successful, are you telling me they're not getting a second match? They couldn't do Yamashita vs Sakazaki and have Tatsumi defend against someone else? If that is the case, then it's bullshit, freaking Hideki Okatani has a spot in the show.

Post-match - Yamashita cut her winner's promo, called out Sakazaki, who came out and also had some words for Yamashita.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good show, while packed, the show went by quite fast. Most of the card had something important about it, it really was just the two openers that where just there, but beyond that, the rest had some selling point.