ChocoPro Roundup: #332 to #336
Otoki Goes Full Badass, Dr Gore Joins The Family & Chie vs Miya Gets Tasty
Front Matter
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Tokiko Kirihara vs Sayaka Obihiro, ChocoPro #332 (23/9/23), Gatoh Move
As much as I adore the chaos of an all-over-the-place ChocoPro slice of madness, I also have a soft spot for when they slow things down a bit. Somehow, this encounter between Otoki and Obi was a first-time singles match, which, given how many shows this company ran during lockdown with a roster that you could fit around a medium-sized dinner table, is pretty remarkable. There are pairings they have protected over the years (Akki vs Mei being the big one), but for a relatively low-value showdown like this one to have slipped through the cracks is somewhat incredible.
Thankfully, it was worth the wait. Coming into the match, Kirihara promised to put Comaneci to one side for the night, choosing instead to play things completely straight. That’s a call I’d typically protest, but it turned out to be the right one here, as we got full ass-kicker Otoki instead. She spent this match chipping away at Obi’s leg with kicks before dragging things down to the mat to continue the attack with submissions. The last couple of years have seen Kirihara make such an art form of nonsense that it’s easy to forget that she has a grounding in MMA, but it was on full display here.
And as cool as it was to see Otoki up the badassery, I equally enjoyed seeing Obi try to deal with it. Obihiro is perhaps one of the purer products of Sakuraism, by which I mean she’s a weirdo. There are very few people, if any, who wrestle like her, and watching her try to deal with this focused onslaught was thrilling. To get the flaws out of the way, she could have used selling the leg a tad more, but that’s nitpicking because most of what she did was great as she battled to find a way to work her way around Otoki’s offence and create an opening for the win. It was a pure veteran performance, as she capitalised on every mistake, picking up the victory from as basic a counter as lifting her leg at the right moment to allow her to avoid an STO.
Coming in at a tight seven minutes and fifty-nine seconds, this is in prime wee gem territory. It’s one of those matches that most people will miss, so don’t let yourself be one of them.
HARASHIMA, Masahiro Takanashi & Mei Suruga vs Hagane Shinno, Chie Koishikawa & Dr Gore, ChocoPro #333 (28/9/23), Gatoh Move
Ichigaya Chocolate Square is an unforgiving venue. With the fans and the camera right on top of you, it can accentuate mistakes and moments of hesitation in a way that a more traditional wrestling environment might not. It makes for a daunting place for newcomers to perform, and that’s before we even get to the pain of taking bumps on a wooden floor covered by a not-particularly thick mat. You can see why it’s not for everyone.
However, the beauty of that place is that it also accentuates the good. For the same reason that people will pick up on your mistakes, they will also notice your strengths. Throw a perfect strike or nail a counter, and the whole place can see every detail, as they’re perfectly positioned to admire what you’ve done. When you drop in a wrestler like HARASHIMA, perhaps one of the more complete in-ring talents of the last couple of decades, the odds are that he will shine.
And let’s not pretend that DDT’s Ace was working his arse off here. He looked like he was enjoying himself - there was a smile plastered across his face all match - but he wasn’t about to give 110%. However, he didn’t need to, because the other thing that Ichigaya showcases is charisma, and HARASHIMA has that in spades. All he had to do was walk through that door, portraying the perfect mix of confidence and likeability, and he had everyone on his side. That he was willing to go out and trade stiff kicks with Hagane before showing off his and Mei’s new double-team move was almost a bonus. I wouldn’t go as far as saying he singlehandedly made this match feel special (I love all these people), but his mere presence raised the bar, pushing them to keep up, and that’s the magic of Ichigaya and HARASHIMA.
Masa Takanashi, Isami Kodaka & Kaori Yoneyama vs Ken Ohka, Shuchiro Katsumura & Dr Gore, ChocoPro #334 (5/10/23), Gatoh Move
A lot was going on in this match, not least the need to get used to bald Ken Ohka. It took me a good ten seconds to figure out who he was, and I’m still not sure I’m over it. I wasn’t alone either, as Yone and Masa kept going to grab hold of those formerly luscious locks only to come up short.
In amongst the general chaos, however, I want to pick out Dr Gore, who has been over in Japan for a month or so and has hit every opportunity out of the park. Wrestling in a pair of scrubs, a surgical mask and gloves can’t be comfortable, but he’s proven himself a wonderful addition to this madcap world, and the moment he told Yone she was sick, causing her to drop dead on the spot, had me giggling away. ChocoPro has a very particular tone, and it’s not something everyone can manage. Thankfully, Dr Gore’s combination of silliness and solid wrestling has him feeling right at home, and you can easily imagine a world where he ends up being a regular visitor for years to come. I certainly hope so, as he already feels like part of the family, even if Mei does keep insisting he’s not a real doctor (who knows where she got that idea from).
As a quick aside, I also wanted to mention the main event of this show between Chon and Akki. I had a few issues with it, as they were trying a bit too hard to have an epic, but there’s no denying it was a good match, and I suspect other people will like it more than me. So, you should also check that out, but make sure to wash it down with this slice of silliness, which was a lot of fun.
Mei Suruga, Baliyan Akki & Miya Yotsuba vs Kaori Yoneyama, Shinno Hagane & Chie Koishikawa, ChocoPro #335 (11/10/23), Gatoh Move
All of this match was enjoyable, but there is one particular moment that I want to focus on. It was the spot where Yoneyama and Hagane attempted to mimic Best Bros by running up the wall and leaping back into dual crossbodies. Hagane, of course, pulled it off perfectly, connecting sweetly with Akki on the way down. Yoneyama, however, came up pathetically short, crashing onto the mat a good foot or two away from Mei.
That moment sums up part of what makes Kaori Yoneyama a brilliant wrestler. I do not doubt that if she wanted to fly across that room, she would. But her genius almost doesn’t let her do that. Even in an intense match, building to a battle for the vacant tag titles, Yoneyama can’t stop herself from going for the gag. Not only that, but it’s a gag that undercuts her talents, making her look silly and a step behind everyone else. Everyone with eyes knows she’s not, but a large chunk of Yone’s career has been built around not taking herself too seriously (she spends enough time dressed as a clown in Stardom). She won’t think twice about making herself the punchline of the joke in favour of grabbing a laugh at the perfect moment in a fast-paced match that needed something to break up the go-go-go style it had stuck with until then.
Credit also has to go to Mei and Hagane, who played the follow-up perfectly, pausing for a second as they stared down at the fallen Yoneyama, giving everyone a moment to take a breath and laugh before flying back into the fight. It all worked to perfection and should be a lesson to any young wrestler watching that you can do a hell of a lot with a willingness to take the piss out of yourself.
Kaori Yoneyama & Chie Kosihikawa vs Baliyan Akki & Miya Yotsuba, ChocoPro #336 (14/10/23), Gatoh Move
The build to Gatoh Move’s latest in-ring show saw a crackling tension grow between Chie and Miya. Chie seemed to be relishing looking down on her junior, a role she’s rarely found herself able to enjoy. It was also one Miya was not content to be cast in, as she spent the shows leading up to it (the actual event took place on October 15th but, at the time of writing, hasn’t been released on VOD) grabbing every opportunity to show that she is more than capable of matching Koishikawa.
I love it when Gatoh Move plays with ideas like that. More often than not, they build matches around fun and silliness, but now and then, they plant a seed of tension and let it grow, nurturing it to see what happens. It’s previously flourished into some of their greatest moments, be it Emi Sakura’s numerous battles with Yunamon or Mitsuru Konno’s run towards the end of her career, and while I don’t think you can put Chie vs Miya on that level, at least not right now, it’s great to see things threaten to boil over between them. It’s not just in the matches either, as more than once over the build to the show, they found themselves scrapping outside that agreed-upon area of conflict.
While this show didn’t add anything new to that rivalry, it was a strong go-home effort, playing off the previous tension and keeping it fresh in everyone’s mind ahead of the actual event. Every time Chie and Miya got together, you could feel their mutual desire to come out on top, and there was a sense that everything between them had got a little bit personal. They had to be dragged apart before the match started, and the post-match janken came close to getting physical. It felt like close friends who have said one too many mean things and have no choice but to hit each other until all the tension is gone. Smartly, though, they didn’t get that deep here, giving us the beginning and leaving the purging of anger for Shinkiba. I’ve no idea when that show will be up, but if Chie and Miya could tap into that feeling again, I suspect we’re in for a treat.