TJPW The 3rd “Futari wa Princess” Max Heart Tournament (19/1/23) Review
The Max Heart Tournament Continues
Front Matter
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Before the Max Heart Tournament continued at Shinjuku, there were a couple of announcements, starting with the news that TJPW will be holding a one-night, no-audience tournament to make their tenth anniversary. It’s going out as a PPV on Wrestle Universe, so I suspect it’s a chance to test that particular feature. Let’s hope it doesn’t lead to a flood of other shows vanishing behind a paywall. That aside, TJPW’s no-fan antics are usually fun, so that will be worth a watch. We also learnt that Janai Kai will be travelling to Japan to challenge Miu for the International Princess Title, with that match going down in Nagoya on the 18th of February. I can’t claim to have seen Kai before, but she looks cool, so that’s a good start.
Hikari Noa defeated Wakana Uehara
Hikari felt like a different kind of test for Wakana. Where Shoko slowed things down with her silky smooth wrestling, Hikari is an erratic, pacier opponent. She didn’t give Wakana a second to breathe, throwing her across the ring by her hair and firing off those flurries of dropkicks.
And yet, once again, Wakana passed with flying colours. You could tell she wasn’t as comfortable as she was when wrestling Shoko, but that’s what made it intriguing, as while there were moments where you could see the seams, it never actually fell apart. It was the odd moment of hesitation rather than a full-blown breakdown. Hikari’s offence also seemed to bring an edge out of her, as she felt feistier here, yelling as she threw strikes that made up for their lack of power with plenty of passion.
It all meant that this was the first time we got to see Uehara as more than a talented young wrestler. We know she’s impressive for her experience level, but now she needs to click into the emotional aspect, and having to deal with Hikari’s more scattergun approach seemed to help with that. That’s a good sign for what is to come.
Verdict: Wakana Looks Good
Mizuki & Mahiro Kiryu defeated Nao Kakuta & HIMAWARI
One advantage of MagiRabbi not being in the Max Heart is that it gives us midcard menace Mizuki, and she had a fresh rookie to torment. Not only that, she had a new toy, as, after a moment of genius improvisation by Nao where she used HIMAWARI’s hair to trip Mizuki up, the bunny realised that said hair could be pulled, twisted and generally put through the wringer. HIMAWARI met Rika at the last show, so it was time for her to meet Mizuki.
Outside of HIMAWARI’s continuing introduction to the cruelty of the TJPW roster, the highlight of this match was Nao vs Mizuki. Yes, the rabbit is the devil, but Kakuta also has a bit of evil in her soul, so watching them tee off on each other was a load of fun. It made me realise that we’ve never seen them have a singles match, which would make for a cracking later-round showdown in the Princess Cup. Koda, get on that.
Anyway, this was an entertaining wee match. Mahiro was kind of left out in the cold, disappearing for a chunk of it, but she got a chance to apologise for the hair abuse (Mizuki showed no sign of contrition), so she’ll be happy. Aside from that, it played to everyone’s strength, and with HIMAWARI putting in another impressive showing, I think we can note it down as a success.
Verdict: Don’t Pull The Rookie’s Hair
121000000 (Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh) & Yuki Kamifuku defeated Yuki Aino, Raku & Pom Harajuku
Pom started this match by deciding to try and get into a kicking competition with Miyu Yamashita. Now, don’t get me wrong, Pom is a master of booting folk in the shins, but that probably wasn’t the best idea. By the time it was over, she appeared to be in quite a lot of pain, but she did get at least one good blow in, so maybe it was worth it.
That set me up for what I assumed would be some light midcard fun, and we did get a bit of that. The Raku, Pom and Aino dream team are masters of that stuff, and the nonsense was sprinkled liberally through the action, but it wasn’t all we got. In fact, we were treated to a couple of tasty match-ups, with Aino looking good when locking horns with Miyu and Pom having surprisingly great chemistry with Itoh. It’s not a pairing that I’ve ever paid much attention to, but they touched into a seam of magic here as Pom fought from underneath, showing good fire when Itoh tried to big-league her.
It helped elevate this from standard TJPW fare into something a little more exciting. Obviously, all matches featuring the Dream Team are essential, but this one was particularly worthy of a watch.
Verdict: It Had A Trick Or Two Up Its Sleeve
Kyoraku Kyomei (Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao) defeated Haruna Neko & Kaya Torbami in the Max Heart Tournament 2nd Round
The bird and the wee cat jumping Kyoraku Kyomei and wrapping Misao’s cape around her head so she couldn’t see is one of the more delightful things to happen recently. They’d come into this with a plan to trick the tricksters, and while it didn’t work, I appreciate their ambition.
Sadly, once Misao managed to escape the confines of her cape, the match was fairly unremarkable. The bird and the cat are a fun idea for a team, and they had a couple of good moments, but there was never any chance of them winning. It meant that while the action wasn’t bad, it was hard to get too excited about it. If anything, it could have used more of the wrapping Misao’s head in a cape antics.
I do hope the Kaya and Neko team continues, though. Toribami has needed something to push her up the ladder for a bit now, and while I don’t think teaming with Neko is a path to the tag titles, it at least gives her some focus. Sadly, this match didn’t quite announce them as the next great hope, but we’ll always have the opening minutes.
Verdict: The Cape Stuff Was Good
Karate Pals (Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano) defeated Daisy Monkey (Suzume & Arisu Endo) in the Max Heart Tournament 2nd Round
The Karate Pals’ upset train keeps rolling! Having put the focus on Juria in the first match, it was Moka’s turn to shine, and she grabbed her chance, pinning Endo after the Korokan. It’s been clear for a while now that TJPW sees big things in Miyamoto, particularly after they gave her a shot at the International Title, and she repays them for every opportunity. She’s become an incredibly solid wrestler, someone you can rely on to do everything well, and she’s a nice counterbalance to the more uneven Juria.
On the other side of the ring, Daisy Monkey looked like they had this one all worked out. Some early kicks from Nagano threatened to find their mark, but when those two pick up the pace, they are exceedingly difficult to pin down. They buzzed around the place, causing a nuisance, but ultimately suffered from their inability to hit the killer blow. Juria and Moka may not have controlled as much of the match, but when they hit, they hit hard, and Daisy Monkey had no answer.
In the long run, I suspect it’s a safe bet that these four will all get their moment in the sun, as they’re all too talented not to. However, it is interesting that Karate Pals are the ones TJPW have decided to focus on in this tournament. I like them as a pairing, but Arisu and Suzume feel like they’re a step or two ahead. Then again, they don’t have Juria’s singing talent. Still, this was a snappy and enjoyable wee match (it went under ten minutes) that flew by. With 121000000 up next, I’d expect Moka and Juria’s run to come to an end, but with two upsets already under their belt, you never know.
Verdict: Karate Pals!
Daydream (Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe) defeated Reiwa AA Cannon (Saki Akai & Yuki Arai) in the Max Heart Tournament 2nd Round
Saki Akai in TJPW has a different aura to her appearances elsewhere. She feels like a cool older sister, returning home to say hello, but maintaining an air of mystery while she does so. In turn, that brings with it a feeling of invincibility. Unless she’s facing monsters from the wastelands, Akai does not lose in Tokyo Joshi, and even with a rookie as her partner, it was always going to take something special to beat her.
Thankfully for Daydream, Rika Tatsumi is no respecter of coolness. In the opening minutes of this match, she grabbed Akai around the throat, clambering onto the ropes to get a better angle from which to choke her. It was a moment of pure Rika-ness, which had the added benefit of popping a bubble. Suddenly, Saki was human, as likely to be murdered in her sleep by a smiling Tatsumi as the rest of us are. I think it’s a bit extreme to claim that it was the moment the match was won, but it definitely felt like a psychological victory.
There was still a lot of wrestling to be done, though, most of which was fantastic. There was one particularly awesome sequence where Miu blocked Quetzalcoatl through pure power, holding Akai in the air for Rika to come flying in with a Hip Attack. Watanabe’s got so good at not only using that power when she’s on the offensive but also as a way to set up interesting counters and escapes. Arai, meanwhile, continued to hold up her end of the bargain even as things fell apart. There was a desperation jackknife pin in the dying seconds where I thought she’d stolen the victory, but it wasn’t to be, and when Rika locked in the Dragon Sleeper, wrenching her back, there was nothing she could do.
It left us with what was easily the match of the tournament so far, as we had two evenly-matched teams who got the time and space to tell their story. It also leaves Daydream as one of the favourites to win the whole thing, especially now that they’ve seen off the former champs. Then again, they’ve got Kyoraku Kyomei in the semi, so who knows what nonsense they’ll have to face.
Verdict: Leave It To Rika To Destroy Your Aura
Overall Show
The main event of this show was perhaps the first must-see match in the Max Heart Tournament so far, but this was an easy watch even before that. It’s also worth saying that the fans, who were allowed to make noise, were boisterous throughout, which helped elevate everything a tad. When you combine that with an undercard full of exciting rookies and a tournament that is starting to hot up, this is worth a watch.
Watch Tokyo Joshi Pro: https://www.wrestle-universe.com/en/videos?labels=-tjpw.