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Hoooooo boy. My trepidation with this one, beyond being new to both Chihiro Hashimoto and Mika Iwata, is that I would miss something for also not knowing much about the ten years of history between them beyond what’s in the promo package that helpfully let me know how far out of the loop I was. None of that shit should matter if the match rips, but what if it didn’t, you know? Or what if it did, but only if you’d seen some difficult to find Pro Wrestling WAVE match from 2017 and remembered a specific spot? I walk into traps like this all the time because I’m an idiot who has seen nothing, but thankfully this match rips and none of that mattered.
Chihiro Hashimoto and Mika Iwata present a classic clash of styles here, the crazy strong grappler against the striker, and in the opening moments of the match they go about the work of laying out the parameters of what’s to come. Hash scores an easy double leg takedown and has the decided power advantage, which she demonstrates by running straight through Iwata. Mika Iwata, for her part, has dangerous kicks, which she shows off by taking Hashimoto off of her feet with a couple far earlier than you’d expect.
Despite the explosiveness of her kicks, Iwata’s strategy is a slow burn. The English language commentary team at one point says, after an Iwata rally, that the match has basically been all Hashimoto, and until about the midway point of it you’d be hard pressed to disagree. Unless she can manage to knock Hashimoto out, Iwata’s path towards clinching the Senjo World Championship necessarily involves landing something besides a kick, but if she gets too close Hashimoto will just overwhelm her with her grappling before powering her into a slam or a suplex. So she kicks and kicks and goes for something, only to find that Hashimoto has more in the tank.
The moments when Hashimoto catches her are thrilling. Her power is unreal, and Iwata is phenomenal on the sell. Her facial expressions when she’s trapped in Hash’s submissions are tremendous, as is her will to escape them. She holds on until Hashimoto begins making mistakes. They’re small at first, but then Iwata lands a kick to Hashimoto’s head while they’re outside the ring that nearly nets her a countout victory, then she counters a torture rack into a cross armbreaker, which had me ROARING.
Even better, when Hashimoto tries to do the powerman counter to the cross armbreaker, attempting to stand and lift Iwata onto her shoulders, Iwata counters by throwing all of her weight back into the armbreaker while Hash has her up, hanging her entire bodyweight on the limb she’s trying to snap. Hashimoto escapes by collapsing, and now she has enough taken out of her that her grip is compromised and a gutsy spear does as much damage to her shoulder as it does to Iwata.
Orchid told me that I’d enjoy this match “to an extent,” which I assume means that she thought I’d maybe take umbrage with the third act. I am kinda tired of fighting spirit exchanges, and Hashimoto and Iwata do give us a little of that Shawn & Hunter as they work their way from false finish to the actual one, but they manage to do things in those sequences that feel earned, if not novel, like how the exchange of running blows ends when Iwata does land a knockout kick, sending Hashimoto crashing to the canvas, where the referee has to check and see if she’s even capable of responding to his standing 10 count.
She is, and she kicks out of a follow-up series of kicks at two after getting up, but now we and Iwata know that a) the kicks have been working, and b) they still won’t be enough to keep her down. It almost comes to naught, as Hashimoto nearly beats her with a powerbomb. Seeing how she works through being on the other end of a nearfall is another little revelation, as she doesn’t just kick out and make faces as Hashimoto complains to the referee or whatever, she actively tries to fight her way back up to her feet, clinging to Hashimoto’s legs as she does so. Having mutually exhausted their best shots to this point, both women opt to slap the shit out of each other.
It’s phenomenal. So too is the finish, in which Iwata, having figured out that her kicks will not be sufficient enough to undo Hashimoto’s power advantage, drills her with a headbutt instead. This works, allowing Iwata to finally drill Hashimoto with a bomb of her own. Her frustration when it nets her a two isn’t trite theater, but earned: she’s been working towards that move for over 20 minutes, hits it, and has nothing left. That Hashimoto does is worth cursing god over. She tries to go back to strikes, but Hashimoto has weathered the worst of them already, and a running knee doesn’t keep her down. Iwata goes for a running, diving attack, and in so doing commits the one error she’s worked so hard to avoid all match, getting close enough for Hashimoto to cinch her up and slam her good, which she does. Chihiro Hashimoto’s powerslam is a goddamn thing of beauty, and I fucking love that the glorious powerslam is still winning championship matches in 2025. Long may it reign.
Rating: **** & 1/2