P’s Party 1/16/19 Live Thoughts

January 16, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan

Last Spring Ice Ribbon’s Tequila Saya started producing a series of biweekly shows called P’s Party (“short” for Peace Party… somehow…) initially focusing on talent with less than three years experience (although as time passes some of their core roster re obviously passing that particular hallmark), with some vets mixed in for them to work with. The concept is fantastic and I really enjoyed the show I got to see in Spring as well as Misaki Ohata’s last show with them in December.

 

 

This show started with a really fun tag match of Asahi & Tsukushi vs Tequila Saya & Totoro Satsuki. All four were spot on and a lot of the exchanges were creative and exciting. The way Saya’s been evolving and chaining a lot of her signature moves is really awesome. Although I do kind of wish her devastating looking “Submarine” (reverse-pedigree) was used as a finisher instead of a transition into a submission (no matter how cool that transition / submission move is). Despite being partnered with the rookie-who-isn’t, Asahi can’t quite stand up to her opponents’ assault long term and is eventually pinned to give Saya & Totoro the win.

 

 

Ice Ribbon’s newest rookie Suzu Suzuki took on veteran and renown comedy wrestler Sakura Hirota in the P’s Party debuts for both. This was kind of two matches spot wielded together, as Hirota broke out her underrated technical skills in a strong display of match wrestling between the two for the first half of the match then transitioned to her standard comedy structure in the latter half.

Her humor works a lot of the time, and I understand cultural differences in comedy that affect my perception of things and that Hirota’s “finger strike to the butt attack” is a standard part of her matches. But honestly I don’t ever need to see a teenager frightenedly running around the ring covering her backside in a panic again. Saya selflessly coming into the ring to “save” Suzu by offering herself up to take the move instead begs all kind of questions about what the point was and why exactly Hirota couldn’t have just continued to attack Suzu afterwards. Sorry to bring logic to a Hirota match, but the way this was done was both uncomfortable and nonsensical (even within Sakura’s usual framework). First half of the match was great, second was … not. Hirota won with her “fluke collapse on opponent for the pin” spot.

 

 

In the main event Maika Ozaki & Matsuya Uno faced Giulia & Rina Shingaki. Interestingly the team of Giulia & Rina were also the “randomly chosen” opponents opening the previous P’s Party event. Enjoyable main event that was largely a spotlight for half of the then reigning International Ribbon Tag Team Champions. Maika’s power was on full display and she picked up a rather emphatic win for her team down the stretch.

 

 

I continue to adore what Saya’s been doing with P’s Party overall and I hope this cool little sister/developmental promotion to Ice Ribbon becomes more accessible to a wider audience at some point. Outside of my personal view on part of the middle match this was another strong outing for them.

P’s Party will have their first larger show as part of the Yokohama Wrestling Festival during Golden Week this year on 5/2. Excited to see what Saya and her roster does with the bigger spotlight.