ChocoPro Roundup: #322, #323 & #324
Team これから, Chie's Birthday Gets Violent & May Suruga Gets Serious
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Team これから (Emi Sakura, Miya Yotsuba & Nonoka Seta) vs Mei Suruga, Chie Koishikawa & Sayaka, ChocoPro #322 (22/7/23), Gatoh Move
Fair play to Emi Sakura, who, twenty-seven years into her career, has decided that she, alongside Nonoka Seto and Miya Yotsuba, is part of the next generation of Gatoh Move. They are Team これから (pronounced kore kara, meaning ‘from now’), and there is definitely not one member who stands out from the rest.
That decision brought something a bit different to a main event that was, on the whole, the kind of chaos you would expect from Gatoh Move (which is never a bad thing). Emi’s team with Nonoka and Miya felt somewhat reminiscent of the early days of her donning a baseball cap and naming herself Emi Pencil (although she’s not hobbled by injury this time). Yes, on the surface, she is helping these two young impressionable rookies, cheering them on and celebrating their successes. However, the rest of us have years of oni-spotting experience, and it’s well-known Sakura doesn’t do anything without a plan. To give her credit, she never betrayed Lulu, but Nonoka and Miya should still have one eye open for any potentially corrupting behaviour.
On the other side of the mat, I wanted to quickly mention what a joy it was to see Chie and Sayaka playing the roles of Gatoh Move veterans. Mei has settled into her position as company Ace, but it had never clicked with me that they have established themselves as her number two and three. Sure, Obi’s around, and perhaps always will be, but she appears happy to take a back seat, leaving the job of representing the promotion to the kids. They’ve been making enough noises about a return to Korakuen that it seems likely to happen sooner rather than later, and that’s a cool trio to have to lead your charge into that famous old venue.
Egg Tarts (Chie Koishikawa & Shinno Hagane) vs Hyakkin Thunders (Emi Sakura & Masa Takanashi), ChocoPro #323 (30/7/23), Gatoh Move
It all started off so fun. In honour of her birthday, Chie entered with a bag of party poppers, firing them off at a Chie-like rate and seemingly setting the mood for a lovely main event. That didn’t last long. The first time Shinno Hagane tagged in, it became clear that while he might not be outwardly showing it, he might still be a tad annoyed at losing the Super Asia Title to Emi Sakura. Or maybe he really likes booting her in the head. Either way, he flew across Chocolate Square with a beautiful dropkick, initiating this match’s turn towards violence.
And it was like everyone took their level of intensity from that one dropkick, giving this whole thing an edge you would not expect from a typical ChocoPro main event, never mind one designed to celebrate someone’s birthday. Even something like Sakura’s crossbody against the wall was delivered with a little shove from Masa, making sure she hit Chie at a hella violent speed. It was like the slightly older scary kids had turned up at the party, and things were getting out of hand.
It also ruled. Even after losing the belt, Hagane has an aura in ChocoPro that makes him feel like he will fuck people up. Sakura, meanwhile, is one of wrestling’s great bullies, and when she realised that she couldn’t match Shinno boot for boot, she turned her attention towards beating up Chie instead, setting her free to be the brilliant underdog babyface she is. Masa, meanwhile, was the one holding everything together, ensuring that this never actually went off the rails. It was an unexpected delight, not because I didn’t expect it to be good, but because I didn’t expect it to be good in this way, and that’s always a treat.
Baliyan Akki & May Suruga (Ken Ohka) vs Sayaka Obihiro & Miya Yotsuba, ChocoPro #324 (1/8/23), Gatoh Move
Ken Ohka’s long-running cosplay as May Suruga has never stopped being enjoyable, but I particularly enjoyed this appearance. That wasn’t because it was any funnier than the others, but in fact, the opposite. With Mei currently embroiled in a feud with Miya Yotsuba, who has already taken to insisting she is ChocoPro’s Ace, Ohka turned up ready to continue the battle, declaring Mei the Ace beforehand and then wrestling with significantly more intensity than he usually shows in that gimmick. It was a lovely attention to detail, playing into the fact that Suruga’s interactions with Miya have recently started to boil over in a way that we don’t usually see from her.
Outside of that, the MVP was Miya, as they’re doing everything possible to put over her surprising power. Not only did she hold her own in the initial lockups with Ohka, but there was a fantastic moment where she shoulder-blocked Akki into every section of the ChocoPro crowd, sending him barrelling into the fans. Miya’s still very young in her career, but she’s already developing her in-ring style, finding a way to stand out from the crowd, and that’s impressive. If nothing else, it’s been enough to get under Mei and May’s skin, which has to go down as a job well done.