While this is pretty much a veteran vs. rookie match, there's enough fire and stiffness to make this stand out on its own. This starts out with the typical vet beating down of the rookie with Hojo controlling things. Iwata is finally able to get on offense when she avoids a charging Hojo and follows up by slamming Kairi on the floor. She then focuses on Hojo back, even breaking out a really nice looking Regal Stretch. Eventually though, Hojo just has enough of this and just starts drilling Iwata with strikes topping off with the absolute nastiest spinning backfist that you will ever see catching Iwata right on the nose. Mika tries making one last comeback but gets jacked up by a running forearm from Hojo and another spinning backfist that splats blood from Iwata's broken nose onto her cheek. That's a visual that I won't be forgetting for awhile. Quite the rite of passage for a rookie. ***3/4

It also continures Hojo's build back to the title which is closest thing to a money story that exists in joshi right now, good physical match that did it's job perfectly.

Well Io Shirai ended up beating Meiko for the title, which after looking back, was probably the plan all along. Hojo getting as over as she did was just a bonus. She is challenging for the belt next month but I doubt Io is just a transitional champion.

Yeah I was kind of shocked by that seems like Io doesn't need the title at this point but whatever the matches are still great

Hojo and Iwata both stuffed the heck out of each other. I liked that Hojo didn't completely eat up her opponent. This was a really fun 10-minute match. The post-match was great, with Iwata slapping Hojo hard during the post-match handshake and Hojo selling it yet trying to overtly pretend it didn't hurt. Nice touch!