This is the title match that was setup after Iwatani won the Cinderella tourny a couple of weeks earlier. The match really comes off as a more cohesive version of the Io/Hojo match in January. Here, they do a much better job of mixing the heavy striking with the big moves. By the finish you really feel that Io won a war while Mayu managed to truly establish herself as a true rival in defeat. ****1/2

I'm probably in agreement about how great this match is, although I really liked Shirai/Hojo, so I have them neck-and-neck. Hojo and Shirai seemed very nearly equal in that match, although Shirai had just the little bit extra to needed to go over. In contrast, this match seemed to confirm Shirai's ranking above Iwatani whilst confirming Iwatani as a dangerous opponent for her and clear at or near her tier.

 

Shirai seemed really intent on dominating Iwatani. To be fair, she's a cocky ace who's never content merely to win--she always wants to show that she's the better woman. She certainly doesn't take it easy on Iwatani and spends the first half of the match really punishing her. She strikes Iwatani as if she were her most hated nemesis rather than her long-time tag partner and co-Tag Team Champion. Iwatani initially has a really tough time stringing together offence together, but eventually starts connecting and, when she does, pushes Shirai hard.

 

Shirai's key defensive strategy is to avoid the dragon suplex, presumably knowing it to be dangerous enough to be able to put her out--think Misawa trying to avoid Steve Williams' backdrop driver. The early to middle portions include some nice counters and escapes from Iwatani dragon suplex attempts. Eventually, Iwatani manages to nail one on the apron in the highspot-of-the-match. But by that point, Shirai had done enough damage to Iwatani to impede her from following up as effectively as she might have liked, and Shirai ultimately is able to put her away.

 

This was one of those matches that's wrestled perfectly in that it illustrates that Iwatani has closed some of the hierarchical gap between her and Shirai, but still has a little ways to go to be able to best her. Other than one little flubbed roll-up attempt (due to being positioned too close to the turnbuckles), this is damn near perfect. A true MOTYC.

An absolutely great match - Io once again proved why she is one of the top tier best wrestlers in the world w/ her epic performance. She absolutely punished Iwatani as she dominated the first half - that was so great. In the 2nd half Iwatani got some more offense in, but by the end, Io really had an answer to everything she did. A really well executed story which came with a super compelling, hard hitting war. ****1/2