This is for Mizunami's Regina Di WAVE title. To be honest, I avoided watching this match because I think that Haruhi is one of the worst workers in joshi, but got curious because I saw a couple of other people recommend it. To her credit, Haruhi works her butt of here and the crowd gets behind her as a result. The story of this match is more of a traditional Japanese wrestling storyline as it's Mizunami challenging the toughness of Haruhi. Mizunami does such a great job in her selling and pacing in the match that her being off on either one of those things would have greatly effected the quality of the match. Easily the most surprisingly great matches of the year so far and a credit to how great of a wrestler that Mizunami has become. ****

Regina di WAVE Championship: Ryo Mizunami © vs. Moeka Haruhi

 

Mizunami plays the role of a hot-blooded drill sergeant, trying to get Haruhi to step her game up and hit harder. She does a top notch job of making Haruhi look like a threat -- this is some seriously amazing leading. Moeka is a wrestler, so she is obviously tough, but her tender body looks like it offers little resistance to Mizunami's destructive offense. When she gets knock over, it looks like a mauling, which made her comebacks feel that much more hard-fought. The sequence where Mizunami counters the Christo into a sidewalk slam, but Haruhi absorbs the impact and reapplies the hold was so amazing. Really, really great match. ****1/2