Regina di WAVE Championship: Misaki Ohata © vs. Nagisa Nozaki

 

Nozaki's sleeper hold has been built up as a powerful maneuver for the past couple of months, and right out the gate she suckers Ohata into it with a handshake. Ohata escapes, but Nozaki never let's up the pressure, she takes any opportunity to go for the sleeper. The suspense and sense of danger was incredible. Ohata gave a stronger ace performance in her bumping and rallies. Some of the best storytelling I've seen in joshi puroresu this year. ****1/2

WAVE doesn't get much right with their booking but they sure did a fantastic job the previous two months getting over Nozaki's sleeper as an instant finisher. They really hammer that point home in the early going of this match as Nozaki is constantly going for the hold that Ohata gets so desperate to counter it that she just straight up grabs Nozaki by the throat to get out of it. Nozaki smartly uses the threat of the sleeper to keep working Ohata over while she is off balance. Ohata's only option to counter is to go at Nozaki hard when she has any opportunity that she has, causing her to take more risks while still leaving herself open to be countered with the sleeper. Very strong match based on competing strategies. ****1/4