there was a little trend going around on my side of wrestling twitter where everyone was quoting eachother with a list of 10 matches they felt represented them as wrestling fans. i thought this was a fun little idea i could do pretty fast so i did, i threw in some of my favorite stuff like the chig/dump '86 bout, ono/ikeda vs. ishikawa/otsuka, some cool jwp stuff, and the one i want to go into more detail on, mio momono vs. mayumi ozaki 2 for ozaki's AAAW title and momono's OZ openweight title.
this little twitter thing got me thinking about wrestling again. more specifically what made me like these matches, what makes these matches feel specific to me and what i like. it narrows down to how each match made me feel, and what it made me believe. theres not many matches that have ever reeled me in as much as ozaki and momono's april 2024 bout did.
im almost prideful about this one in a way. not in the sense that this is something small that i found and i was the first to it or some kind of like superiority(? trying to think of a better word) thing but rather that it feels so rewarding for something as great as this to come along. i watched this live at like 1 am when it happened, i watched the first mio/oz match when it happened. not often does modern wrestling truly capture you like this but when it does its like you won the lottery. sometimes i argue with myself about why i mainly watch modern wrestling as it happens live and commit myself so much to doing that when theres actually a surplus of way better shit waiting for me from the past and i think its just the gamble and spontaneousness that comes with matches and moments like this that have even the slightest chance to happen.
anyways im going to talk about the match now. if this sounds nothing like a real wrestling review thats because it isnt because i a. suck at trying to do that and b. dont necessarily want it to sound like that.
the way this match sets itself up is riveting. out comes kakeru, maya yukihi, saori anou, police, then its ozaki herself. walking out in the main event of her promotion that she named after herself, shes walking behind her stable named Ozaki-gun, she walks into the ring and steps onto the mat with a big ass oz academy logo on the canvas. she is wearing a ridiculously sick red jacket and throwing around the belt that shouldnt be hers because she is evil. she also has a chain. the korakuen crowd is cheering for her. it truly does not get more homecourt advantage than this.
next its mio walking right into a hell almost personally designed for her, looking to take back her home promotion's AAAW title that oz essentially stole from her. mio walks in hoisting her marvelous flag on her left shoulder, the oz openweight title on her right, in all of it's shitty, grimey glory. mio walks in with a far different demeanor than she usually does. given the last time these two met when momono attempted to defend what was once her AAAW title, ozaki and company ambushed and beat the hell out of momono, robbing her of her championship. by nature, momono feels she has to come differently this time around. she doesnt take a second to smile and make gestures at the crowd. her eyes are locked onto ozaki. you see her take a few deep breaths as she walks up the steps to enter the oz academy ring. shes also not alone this time. out at ringside theres marvelous' takumi iroha, riko kawahata, and maria giving momono some support.
mio runs past the referee when he tries to pat her down before the match's start to try and get a quick advantage in a similar way to what ozaki did when she smashed the AAAW championship into momono's face the first time around. momono angrily grabs handfuls of ozaki's hair attempting to no avail, ozaki brushes this off and does the same to momono. what follows is some real sick nasty mat brawling, some genuinely technique-less hatred filled fighting with a few live rounds in there that are awesome.
early you see mio's plan start to come into fruition a little. police classicly comes in with a chair in hand looking to clock momono with it. mio expects it, dodges it, he hits oz over the head with it and riko rids the ring of any further interference! simple, right?
i think what mio failed to consider is that its ozaki's game shes trying to play.
ozaki-gun gets rid of the marvelous girls for the time being and what follows is such a brutal ass whooping man. blood trickles down momono's face from a preceding chair shot, a tightly fastned dog collar attatched to ozaki's chain prevents an adequate amount of air from being let into momono's lungs and ozaki whips her around korakuen hall, battering her with a chain wrapped fist.
mio looks truly helpless here, looking more to just survive and less having any real chances of fighting back. the oz academy crowd is cheering all of this on.
its not until after minutes of mio getting the shit kicked out of her where she shows a little life again. finally left alone again in the ring with ozaki she uses ozaki's own momentum against her and sends her out of the ring through the ropes. by herself she takes out the once again intervening ozaki-gun and subsequently does a big dive onto all of them! the first bit of success for momono finally strikes.
a common theme that prevails to me throughout this one is that the efforts of the marvelous girls to not only save momono's ass but even try to give or add onto the advantage momono creates over ozaki really arent effective. theyre not as on point when picking when to attack ozaki and are prone to counters, theyre not as dominant like ozaki-gun is. momono is finding success when she does it herself and not in the way inspired by what ozaki did to her once before.
and good god have i said anything about how physically and visually awesome this match is too man. watch as ozaki smashes this chain into mios face, how mio continually wills herself back to her feet just to face more punishment, that sick ass half and half. hard for me to try and word this one out, easier to just show this.
like before mio's demise comes from her backup failing to do as planned once again. mio and iroha finally rid the ring of police and any other ozaki crony and its then where iroha goes to attack ozaki, only to be misted and positioned pefectly as a launch pad for her to kick mio's face in. ozaki nastily drops mio on her head and its over.
mio walked into oz's sanctuary, trying to fight her fire with her own, and fails. the crowd is chanting ozaki's name after she just destroyed the vibrant, colorful momono, again.
it was so sick and unexpected for this match to go this way and bring out momono's youth, portraying how naive she was stepping into this match facing ozaki whos practically ruled this corner of joshi for the last 20 or so years, this time with the odds stacked even more against her.
not many pairings have ever truly contrasted eachother as much as these two ever have and its so awesome they were able to do something so special together given how distant they are generation wise.
a truly compelling match and i beg you watch it if you havent seen it yet.
thanks for reading, sorry for how all over the place this was.
