Falcon's Joshi Blog: Match-of-the-Day: Ayako Hamada & Cherry v Mayumi Ozaki & Mio Shirai

Cherry, Mio and Ayako -- things gettin' crazy . . .

This was a barn-burner of a match to bring us up to intermission. An attractive tag between workers from different promotions, generations, and personas. What they share is an understanding of hard-style and the pacing and choreographed 3-and-4 person sequences that bring about the best matches. I had seen Ayako often in SHIMMER and watched her from her earliest ARSION days. She is arguably the best wrestler in Japan today along with Meiko and Nanae. I have also been a huge fan of Heel Ozaki for the better part of two decades. But with Ozaki you know what you will get -- solid heel work, chains, etc., but no high-flying, no big-time bumps. Cherry seems the quintessential "face" with a limited aerial arsenal and some nice gymnastics. Cherry's ability to take some serious bumps and ride the victim wagon for a good 6-7 minutes was impressive. Equally impressive was Mio-the-Heel Shirai. I was amazed at how effective her teaming with Ozaki was; her interactions with the ref and crowd were superb; and her athleticism which was hinted at in photos from Japan, became most evident in the live performance -- stiff kicks, forearms, etc. A solid and charismatic performance. When Ayako got tagged in she was a house-a-fire devastating the camp of Ozaki/Shirai. Mio and Mayumi then showed how well they could "take" a bump -- often the most underrated part of a heel's game (just as Muhammed Ali was underappreciated for his ability to take a punch).