Front Matter
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ChocoPro 305 and 306 were Gatoh Move’s final shows before DPW came to town for a joint double-header and featured, among other things, the return of Emi Sakura. As nice as it is to see Sakura get a chance at cracking America, Ichigaya feels a bit emptier when she’s not around, so it’s always good to have her back. Anyway, onto the matches that I think you should be checking out.
Mei Suruga & Miya Yotsuba vs Mochi Natsumi & Chie Koishikawa, ChocoPro #305 (16/4/23), Gatoh Move
Before we talk about the match, I wanted to point out that the wee lass who has started turning up to ChocoPro with her homemade signs in support of Mei is my favourite wrestling fan. Forget people like me. That’s who this stuff should be for.
Away from that, Mochi becoming a ChocoPro regular has been a lovely breath of fresh air. She’s joined the likes of CDK in not being afraid to be the protagonist, as she takes particular joy in bullying Miya. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not gone full-cackling villain, but she’s happy to be a bit of a dick, which gave Mei and Miya something to overcome. Perhaps more impressively, it also drew something a bit different out of Chie as she flirted with the dark side. Again, it’s not like she’s about to join Seiki-gun, but it’s rare to see her indulge in that way, and she was surprisingly good at it.
Outside of that, this was a fun main event, the kind you’ll see on a bunch of ChocoPro shows, but which I rarely won’t enjoy. It had four wrestlers I like bouncing off each other in a room they know well and in front of a crowd who are on their side. The odds are you it won’t blow your mind, but I bet you’ll enjoy yourself.
Verdict: Evil Chie?
Mei Suruga vs Tokiko Kirihara vs Miya Yotsuba, ChocoPro #306 (23/4/23), Gatoh Move
Mei sprinted onto the mat, dragging her suitcase behind her. Not long after this show finished, she was supposed to be in Yokohama to open up Stardom’s biggest event ever, so she was kindly (read aggressively) asking everyone to hurry things along.
What followed was pure Surugaism as Mei dashed around the place desperately trying to get this over and done with. Lovely Miya, ever the faithful student, tried to help her along, but Otoki, who is that bit older and wiser, was having none of it, wandering out like she was on holiday. That meant Mei had to do it herself, bouncing frantically from move to move, manipulating her opponents into position. It was a genuinely astonishing performance, as she appeared out of control and frantic while actually knowing exactly what she was doing.
Otoki and Miya also deserve credit for managing to keep up. It would be easy to decide that Mei dragged them through this whirlwind, but it’s far from that simple, and they held up their end of the bargain well. Fast-paced, with a unique twist and a whole lot of fun? This was the definition of a sneaky wee gem.
Verdict: She Got There On Time
Emi Sakura & Minoru Fujita vs Balliyan Akki & Chie Koishikawa, ChocoPro #306 (23/4/23), Gatoh Move
Emi Sakura is a brilliant wrestler. That’s hardly a major revelation, but sometimes you need to focus on the obvious. On her return to Ichigaya, she strolled in like she’d never been away and proceeded to be a massive bellend for the entirety of this match. It fucking ruled.
And very few wrestlers do pumped-up arrogance and casual cruelty like Emi does. Holding her DPW title aloft, she demanded applause from the fans before pulling out every cheap shot and underhanded trick in the book (and Emi’s book is long). Then, when things went wrong, she was caught between indignant and panicked, furious that Akki would dare be bigger and stronger than her but also desperate to escape so she could regain her authority.
It’s an act that draws the best out of her opponents, too. Chie is rarely as fired up as when she slapped Emi across the face, but Sakura inspires that. Plus, now that she’s spending most of her time working three-minute matches on AEW’s YouTube, she looks as healthy as she has in years, moving around the mat with a smoothness that wasn’t possible when she was banged up from working in Ichigaya multiple times a week. I still think Tony and his goons are wasting her (and she proves it every time they deign to give her an opportunity), but selfishly, this lightened schedule might extend her career by a few more years, which would be a wonderful thing.
I was going to finish by saying it wasn’t a one-woman show, but that would be a lie. When Emi is in this kind of mood, no one is taking attention away from her, and that’s exactly how it should be.
Verdict: Welcome Back, Sakura!