>>19146154I just watched Iyo Sky vs Mayu Iwatani and thought it was very very good. The work itself was excellent and it was cool to see the star reception Sky got. The match was generally worked like a traditional senpai/kouhai deal where Mayu had to rise up and match the level of Iyo, who in-story is above her and ahead of her.
It’s Iyo’s third best match this year.
The match almost threatened to feel a bit *too* exhibitiony and samey but it went up a gear after Iwatani’s spectacular poisonrana. The Iyo Sky/Utami Hayashishita match from last year also felt like an exhibition as well, but that had the appeal of Iyo essentially returning to form, and reintroducing this version of herself. It functioned as a GREAT showcase.
I feel that the “she brought Io Shirai back” comments that today’s match received were far more apt last year, when there was a legitimate whiplash in going from watching Iyo be fun in midcard RAW tags working at 60% speed to being the fully unleashed performer that she was in Ryogoku against Hayashishita.
I didn’t get that same kind of whiplash this time around and that could mostly be attributed to the fact that Sky has *generally* been in this form all year, having been unlocked since her previous Marigold trip and now being used as a pushed babyface with the room to have her specific match with more regularity.
These were the following major differences between today’s match and the Iyo we have seen all year:
-Mayu’s working rhythm is the same as Iyo’s so she could naturally wrestle at her fastest foot speed. (Rhea Ripley has a completely different rhythm and style which is why it took Iyo a bit to figure her out)
-Iwatani also is a maniac bumper that made Sky’s dropkicks look unreal, and Iyo could do a bunch without worrying about the hardcam.
-Iyo had the latitude to do 619s and tombstones without heat from the office.
****1/4
