Sendai Girls at Korakuen Hall Results & Review (4/19/2018)

Hello and welcome to another international coverage. For today I thought we could add another Joshi promotion into the mix and after seeing what the card looked like, I knew I just had to cover this show. The name of the promotion is Sendai Girls and they’re actually my favorite Joshi promotion right now because they have some of the best Joshi wrestlers right now, produce nice quality shows, and are just a lot more fun to watch.

I’m sure more people know Stardom more due to them having a streaming service and mostly Io Shirai and Toni Storm, but I wish Sendai Girls had their own streaming service, because they’re worth the money and support. Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling was founded in 2005 by both Meiko Satomura and Jinsei Shinzaki, who is also president of Michinoku Pro Wrestling. What’s also interesting about Meiko is that not only is she an active wrestler and co-founder of the company, she is also the head trainer and booker, this girl is just amazing. Another amazing thing is that they only have nine people in their official roster and the rest that come are from other companies or freelancers, meaning they make kinda like super shows if you will with possible dream matches or a better environment. Let’s see what this show is about and….dive right in.

Singles Match
Ami Sato vs. Manami

Review: As per tradition with most shows from Japan, we start off with our new or up and coming wrestlers and that is both Ami and Manami. There’s no info on Ami at this time since I believe this is her debut and as for Manami, she is thirteen years old (What is with them in starting so young?) and has a little under a year of wrestling experience so far, but has had a handful of matches meaning she’s starting to get more well groomed. Manami was very impressive in this match-up as you can see the growth and progress she has made and why Meiko is a great trainer for these women. Ami Sato didn’t do too bad herself and does show she needs more improvement in the ring, but practice makes perfect and she even picks up the win over Manami with a very nice Cradle.

Recommended: Solid match for rookies, give it a watch.

Tag Team Match
Aiger & Sakura Hirota vs. KAORU & Solo Darling

Review: We have ourselves a tag team match with a couple of vets such as Mizuki Endo doing her alter ego gimmick, Aiger and also Sakura and KAORU who have about 20+ years of wrestling experience. Then you have Solo Darling who has about 9 years of experience and from New York too, represent.

We have KAORU and Aiger starting the match off and it involved KAORU teasing her with a lollipop and I am not kidding here, this is hilarious. But the referee would ruin their fun and take the lollipop away, but KAORU would surprise Aiger with an even bigger lollipop, and then her and Solo would assault her. Honestly this match was just funny and entertaining as there’s a lot of miscommunication between partners, even the referee getting in on the fun, and it was just a treat for the fans. Sakura would roll up KAORU after Aiger spits some powder on her face to blind her.

Recommended: If you want solid comedy and decent wrestling, yes.

Eight Man Tag Team Match
Aja Kong, Cassandra Miyagi, Heidi Katrina & Sammii Jayne vs. Alex Lee, DASH Chisako, Hiroyo Matsumoto & Mio Momono

Review: We get an eight man tag match now with our current Sendai Girls Tag Team Champions, Cassandra Miyagi and Heidi Katrina as they team up with Sammii Jayne and the legendary Aja Kong from Oz Academy and it’s good to see her still working and has had a well accomplished career all over the world for those that don’t know her, but I’m sure most of you readers do. My one complaint here is that the match itself was fifteen minutes, but half of it got cut out since they show the last three matches in full and I’m not sure how I feel about that. The match was fine though, but it’s more of I wish I saw the rest. DASH Chisako is another one I enjoy watching in the promotion and she also wins the match with a Frog Splash on Cassandra Miyagi.

Recommended: That one is up to you.

Singles Match
Hana Kimura vs. Mika Iwata

Review: There’s a familiar face we all know and love, Hana Kimura as she is there in her Wrestle-1 attire and personality instead of her Oedo Tai version of herself. We get a hype video before the match starts as it appears to be a rivalry between the two females here as in their previous match, it would end in a draw due to the time limit being up, but Meiko appears to have made the match happen once more and hopefully with a proper conclusion.

Mika Iwata has about two years of wrestling experience under her belt and mostly working for Sendai Girls, she definitely does have a future as a top star with how well she performs in the ring, but now let’s see how this rematch goes. This match delivered in all of the right ways since it felt like a proper rivalry with how aggressive they are and how they were both able to tell a story in the ring, and this might be my favorite match of Hana Kimura so far, or at least of this year. I said it before, but Mika could be the future of the company one day. The match went on for about seventeen minutes with Mika trying to pull all of her stops to try and put Hana away, but she would kick out of every Roundhouse Kick she would deliver to her, showing her spirit and not giving up, but Mika would deliver one more Roundhouse Kick to finally put her away. After the match, both girls would talk to put each other over in a sign of respect as they hug it out and a great way to end the rivalry.

Recommended: Great match, worth a view

Singles Match
Io Shirai vs. Meiko Satomura

Review: This is definitely a big match as both Io and Meiko have only fought three times in their career, and this one will be their fourth encounter together so you know this match is gonna be special. I know I praise Io in my Stardom coverage for how good she is, but Meiko is currently my favorite female wrestler right now, the woman is fantastic in the ring, the co-founder of Sendai Girls, and has had an amazing career next to Manami Toyota, who is arguably the greatest female wrestler of not only Japan, but of all time. This is definitely gonna be a huge place and no better place to do it than the legendary Korakuen Hall, so let’s see how this encounter goes.

I think this might be my favorite female match of 2018 so far and it’s not just because these are two of my favorite women in the ring, but because the chemistry and story they can tell in the ring. This is probably just me, but Io really fits well in the Sendai Girls roster if she ever decides to wrestle more shows for them instead of Stardom and it would be a nice change of pace for her career since she has done everything in Stardom, but I’m sure she’ll go when she’s ready. Meiko also moves like she hasn’t aged a bit and shows how good she is in the ring, and when you get these two females in the ring, you just get magic. There was never a dull moment throughout the match as you feel like you get something special in the match in just about every minutes and it keeps picking up as time goes on. Io would go for her Moonsault Press, but Meiko would kick her down and hit her Death Valley Bomb, but Io would kick out of it. Meiko would then go for her Scorpio Rising which is a beautiful Shining Wizard Axe-Kick and soon as she nails it, the bell would ring meaning that the match is a draw due to the twenty minute time limit and the crowd would give them a standing ovation. They would show each other respect after the match and it’s well deserved.

Recommended: Fantastic match and it should be viewed. In fact, I’ll post the video of that match right here in this article so you can see for yourself.

Sendai Girls World Title Match
Chihiro Hashimoto (c) vs. Ayako Hamada

Review: Interesting fact about the World Title is that even though the promotion was found in 2005, the titles were actually created in 2015, so these titles are fairly new despite being around for thirteen years. While Meiko is the founder and one of the very best, Chihiro is known to be the ace of the company and one of the best in the promotion right next to her. This is her third title reign and her her third championship defense even though she has held it for 278 days for this reign as she takes Pro Wrestling WAVE’s very own Ayako Hamada (Also known as just Hamada in TNA) who got this match by defeating Meiko at the January 6th show and now here we are with the big match. Can Ayako dethrone the champion or will Chihiro have her third successful reign as champion?

The match would have a little bit of a slow start, which isn’t always a bad thing, but I know some people do get thrown off by it and they pick up as time progresses in this match with Hamada showing that she’s still got it after all this time and the last time I actually did see her was when she was in TNA, but I’m glad she’s doing so much better in WAVE which I do need to eventually subscribe to. Chihiro is also so good for a girl her age and moves like a cruiserweight while having the body of a heavyweight. It was fast, technical, powerful, and intense which is some of the elements of having a great match between the two here. In nearly twenty minutes, Hamada would hit her spinning back kick on her a couple of times to stun the champ and then hits the AP Cross to become the new Sendai Girls World Champion! After the match during Hamada’s post match speech, DASH appears to have challenge the new champion to a match for that championship and it appears as if she accepted the match. I have no idea when the match takes place, but looking forward to it. Congrats Hamada!

Recommended: Very good match, worth a view.

Overall: Despite both tag matches being cut to make the two hour mark for the video to be released, I thought it was a great show as it had both wrestling and entertainment, we also had three fantastic matches here proving why I love this company.

Favorite Match: Io Shirai vs. Meiko Satomura

Least Favorite Match: Aja Kong, Cassandra Miyagi, Heidi Katrina & Sammii Jayne vs. Alex Lee, DASH Chisako, Hiroyo Matsumoto & Mio Momono

Score: 8.5/10