This is part of the “Stardom’s Favorite Daughter—Icon or Illusion?” watch series, which you can find here.

While it lacks the tight-knit nature and smoothness of something this style needs for me to recommend, for the first time in the series, Mayu Iwatani is involved in a genuinely enjoyable (if not good) match. It also marks two other firsts in the series—the first match I’ve reviewed with Mayu’s AMA team aside Hoshiki, and the first time Mayu shares a ring with one of her fellow daughters, Io Shirai—two of which are much more important to the makeup of Mayu’s carrer rather than my opinion on what her first decent match is.

Regrettably, if this wasn’t in the watch series, the team I’d have the least to say about is the one consisting of Mayu and her partner.

They aren’t bad here, there is a bit of overzealous energy from the pair when they’re getting time alone in the ring, but with how limited that time is, there’s a certain charm from seeing them try to make it count. And once again, I think Mayu ends up being the more stable force of the pair too. That comes in the form of a bit better timing and being much more sympathetic while being worked over, as well as the plus of getting the better segments out of the Bito/Aikawa pairing than anyone else in the match. Oh, and as much as I hate the term and the disingenuous places it usually comes from, there does seem to be a natural bit of chemistry between Shirai and Mayu, even if one does clearly outshine the other to this point.

More generally speaking, the match functions as some amalgamation of the modern TV tag match and a Dragon Gate Tag, and somehow, it works wonders. Lots of quick action, everyone finding a way to stay involved, and little to no repetition. Never daring to be great or anything like that, a bit too cutesy here and there, but fairly consistently attempting to maximize what everyone can do. One could describe it as messy, I suppose, as the tag rules feel much too lose for any purist to love, but with the maximalist nature of the whole thing a bit of human error and some on-the-fly correction remove any kind of phony feeling film stylistic matches like this one can tend to feature. Natsuki Taiyo and Io in particular are the highlights, naturally, as they’re both able to move the quickest convincingly. Still though, all eight women get positive reactions at different points, so it’s hard to rag on any individual too harshly. And because it’ll be a problem in the backend of the series, the Shin-Kiba 1st RING crowd deserves some flowers for embracing the chaos and wrestlers quickly, even if they were only numbered at 285 strong.

So as I’ve said so often early, not essential, nor does it provide anything spectacular from Mayu. All the same, a pretty fun one for the Stardom completionists, and important for a couple first-time sakes.

Rating: Meh