I love the GAORA intro for OZ Academy, just as a point. This Korakuen show features a tag team title match, as well as the fourth trial match for Kakeru Sekiguchi, taking on the superlative OZ Academy Openweight champion, Hikaru Shida.
Mayu Yuhiki vs Ayame Sasamura: Mayu is such a dastardly heel in Ozaki-Gun, and the dichotomy of that with Ayame’s fiery babyface fughting from underneath works really well as an opener. Some of those whip shots look stingy, and Yuhiki finishes Sasamura with a kick to the head to win. **1/2
Misaki Ohata/Natsumi Maki vs Yumiko Hotta/Tsubasa Kurigaki: The energetic Maki and the great Ohata work well as a team against the bigger and more experienced Hotta and Kurigaki team. The big veterans throw the smaller two around, and that double Torture Rack spot looked impressive. Hotta finishes Maki with a Tiger Driver and then a straitjacket powerbomb that looks nasty. **3/4
Aja Kong vs Sakura Hirota: Hirota’s comedy doesn’t always go over well with me, and at the start of this she hands Kong a bag with an autographed photo of Rina Yamashita in it. I’m sure if I could understand Japanese, this would be a lot funnier. Mercifully, the version I watch has a mere 3 minutes of this, before Kong backfists Hirota with a box on her head for the win. Em, so yeah… * (Kong always gets a star for being in a match)
Ozaki-gun vs MISSION 4K & Ryo Mizunami: Ozaki and Ohka are two of the baddest legends of joshi you’ll see today. Ozaki frequently bleeds all over the place, and this match immediately devolves into a chaotic brawl. Seriously, find someone who loves you like Ozaki must love pro wrestling, because she takes some hard stuff in this match. Also, I understand that Ozaki-gun are the heels, but MAN i hate this POLICE guy… Seriously, every time he gets involved I hate him more. Ozaki-gun would be BETTER heels without his antics. Anyway, this match is really fun, swinging back and forth with good moves. Yumi Ohka hits possibly the best brainbuster you’ll see this year, wow. I feel Saori Anou is really underrated, and the limited moments she gets in this match are great. I also like Sonoko Kato a lot, but she takes the pin after a triple mist and then a big boot. ***
Don’t mess with fucking Ozaki.
Hiroyo Matsumoto/Kaori Yoneyama vs Yoshiko/Rina Yamashita: Your reigning OZ Academy tag team champions are one of the best tag teams in Japan this year, and BORDERLESS have been having great matches all year. Yoneyama is a guilty pleasure of mine, and my love for the Lady Destroyer knows no bounds. I am mainly here for this match. Yoneyama immediately turns out to be a liability when she refuses to be thrown out of the ring onto BORDERLESS, who take over from there. Those Yoshiko facewashes always look rough, and she’s very mobile for a ‘big bully’ style wrestler. Poor Kaori takes a lot of punishment, and I love the giant swing rope skipping that BORDERLESS do, until Yoshiko squashes her. Finally, the hot tag is made and Hiroyo runs wild. Matsumoto is probably my favourite joshi ever, and she and Yoshiko could have a major hoss fight in their future. Yoshiko dumps Matsumoto on the floor, slams Yoneyama on top then drops a big running senton in a cool spot. I’m all in on Matsumoto and Yoshiko crashing clotheslines and headbutts off each other, and Rina finally gets in for a bit of a shine . She dodges a roll up and then escapes having Yoneyama powerbombed onto her too. She traps Hiroyo in a sleeper, who barely escapes to the ropes and then drops a big back drop and an elbow.
Meanwhile, Yoneyama reappears from nowhere and tries to superplex Yoshiko. Yeah, I just wrote that sentence, and what’s even weirder is that it worked, with a little help from Hiroyo. I love the switch when Yoneyama powerbombs Matsumoto onto Rina, and that top rope senton was huge! There’s some big lariats, then we see the lariat-into-sunset-bomb double team, then that high angle back suplex for the 1-2-3! Beast Friends win! Beast Friends WIN! Aja comes in to celebrate, and what a great fun match that was! ****
Hikaru Shida vs Kakeru Sekiguchi: The fourth in Sekiguchi’s five match trial series sees her taking on the reigning OZ Academy Openweight champion Hikaru Shida. Shida can always be relied on for a good to great match, so I think she’ll lead Sekiguchi well here. Sekiguchi is about 18 months into her career, and is part of the Actwres Girl’Z promotion.
Sekiguchi starts quick, throwing dropkicks that Shida just takes barely flinching, then knees her hard in the face. Sekiguchi keeps coming, fighting with spirit but most is totally ineffectual against Hikaru who dominates. Everytime Kakeru starts to build a little hope, Shida just knocks her back down. Sekiguchi shows a great fire, trying hard to get a hold somewhere. She gets a crossbody, a number of dropkicks then a cover transition into an armbar which looks nice. Shida has that great Tanahashi quality, where she normally plays the more heroic babyface but is just as good when her shithead heel comes out too. An enziguri and a big knee to the face kills another Sekiguchi comeback, and she seems to be running on empty. There’s a bit of hairpulling as Hikaru toys with her, before Sekiguchi rolls her over and smashes her with a horrible headbutt. Jesus.
Then it steps up a gear with a hard, stiff strike exchange, then a lovely floatover into an armbar from Sekiguchi; man that was smooth. The focus is now on Shida’s arm, repeatedly cracked against the ring post, then a deep armbar that turns into almost Zack Sabre Jr-like twistedness. This match is really rolling now, and Shida almost wins the fall with some hard running knees. Sekiguchi tries her hardest to roll Shida up, and there’s one particular cradle that was 2.9999. Shida finally wins with a big knee then a Falcon Arrow. What a great effort, Sekiguchi’s fire and refusal to stay down was excellent, while Shida was a great heel to start and her selling of the arm really put some credibility on Sekiguchi. A great example of someone getting over in defeat. ***3/4
Joshi's Valley 