Jungle Kyona vs. Kagetsu

[8.0] "Kagetsu really is an all-timer and this was a great performance. Just layers upon layers of good story stuff here, Jungle was also great. Starts off with Kagetsu offering the handshake and fighting clean but Jungle has an answer to everything and it takes Kagetsu avoiding Jungle's offence to get in control. Kagetsu works Jungle's arm in a pretty entertaining way and although Jungle's selling of it wasn't amazing, most of the story was her overcoming the odds. Kagetsu's use of brass knuckles to the gut early on comes into play later when Jungle injures her ribs even more when Kagetsu gets the knees up on a diving splash which also takes out Kagetsu's knees that got worked a little early on. From there, Kagetsu hits panic mode and goes for all the big bombs and even rollup attempts, one of which was countered into a crazy Ganso Bomb and sitout powerbomb for a nearfall. The Jungle Bomb counter was a little weird as it looked like Jungle was selling a mist-spot that hadn't happened yet and there was a bit of a delay actually getting to it but it was nice that Kagetsu had to cheat given how much of a threat Jungle was. Really great stuff - ****"

[10.0] "Holy shit. I love this match. I have no clue how I skipped this over when I first dove into Kagetsu's work, but he along with Kyona do impeccable wrestling here. Kagetsu's a slimy heel who is beloved despite that, and Kyona is a valiant babyface who perseveres through the pain in her arm to try and win. *****"

[10.0] "It's hard for me to imagine how is it possible to make the 20-minute match of ultimate underdog and dastardly smart heal even better. Everything that is done here is perfect. Kagetsu's work on the opponent's hand, selling and overcoming from Kyona were on point. Kagetsu's reaction to the splash - wow. None looks weak and heel work doesn't annoy. I'm a big fan of the current Stardom product, but with Jungle and Kagetsu it would be definitely even better."

[8.0] "This was a pretty great match and it could've been amazing if they changed some things up. There was some great storytelling and psychology here. Kagetsu's neck is taped up so naturally Kyona works on it. Her work is simple but painful. Her stomps, the cravate, those neck twists. It's awesome work. Kyona's got a taped up arm so Kagetsu goes to work on that in return. Her strikes and submissions looked good and she had some sweet counters to Kyona's offense going back to that arm. The obligatory crowd brawl should've been taken out because that's just a waste of time and could've been replaced with more good wrestling. The finishing stretch was good so no complaints there. The chemistry was almost flawless and the big bombs were well executed. Kyona hitting a Ganso Bomb was badass. Loved this. ****"

[10.0] "My favourite match of 2019, Jungle is on of the best Babyfaces, and Kagetsu is one of the best Heels, and they played their parts to perfection"

[10.0] "One of these days Kyona is going to actually win a match and its gonna rule. Until then I'll take solace in the fact that she's having these kinds of matches at all."

[8.0] "Kyona shows she belongs in the main event tier, and Kagetsu was her usual great self. A lot of cool callback spots from their previous encounters (Ganso Bomb! ), and some great fighting spirit shown by Kyona powering through an injured arm. The only things that hurt this match were a little too much crowd brawling and a non-clean finish. But aside from that, a really well paced main event that continually picked up as it went along all the way to an exciting finish. ****"

[8.0] "This was great. Kyona's offense is a joy to watch and Kagetsu targets Kyona's arm brilliantly throughout the match, highlighted by a very good submission sequence. Thought they escalated things very well making for a dramatic final few minutes. Kagetsu promising to wrestle a clean match only to mist Kyona when up for a powerbomb was great as well and showed how desperate she was to put Kyona away. Had they done away with the balcony spot and crowd brawling this would be even better. (****)"

[10.0] "Thought this was fantastic! Love how Kagetsu wrestles a counter style much of the time, ducking and dodging and reversing until she gets a big hit in. Nice solid punches to the gut as well. And that hanging armbar in the stairwell, holy crap! Jungle comes back well before the end, that ganso-bomb powerbomb combo was nuts, but Kagetsu breaks her promise to wrestle a clean match and gets the final win."

[7.0] "This was my first time watching either of Kagetsu or Kyona, and I though they were both great. The story going in was that Kagetsu was promising she would wrestle 'clean', but whenever she found herself desperate enough she would have to resort to underhanded tactics, which ultimately got her the win. Kyona started the match with work over Kagetsu's pre-injured neck, but Kagetsu soon moved to target Kyona's pre-injured arm in response, and this became the main focus of the match. Kyona was great at selling her anguished screams as Kagetsu contorted the arm with various holds. Kagetsu also did a good job selling whenever Kyona would manage to gain control after a heated comeback. Kagetsu started bringing out her big moves but Kyona always seemed to be able to get back to her feet. Both women hit some very impressive looking moves (some rather painful looking even) and all with near flawless chemistry. At one point Kyona hit a damn Ganso Bomb, which I loved. There was a confusing moment where Kyona spun Kagetsu around in the powerbomb position but then dropped Kagetsu, acting as if Kagetsu had raked her eyes or something. Maybe Kagetsu did that with a glancing finger, but it looked really odd. There was also a bit of awkwardness with Kagetsu waiting for Kyona to get in position for a mist/some sort of spray spot, which eventually allowed Kagetsu to hit a 450 Splash and Death Valley Driver for the win. Even though that was technically a screwed finished I still enjoyed the match overall because of the general work-rate displayed, plus that finish played into the story of Kagetsu having to play dirty to get the win. This likely won't make anyone's 2019 MOTY list but it was a very enjoyable watch. ***3/4"

[8.0] "Man get rid of the forced Korakuen Hall Balcony spot/Brawling and this is a MOTYC. Oh well. This still rules. Jungle though . Kagetsu's title reign honeslty hasn't been the best. Good in ways but not that great performance that makes a title reign special but this was that. She was fantastic. ***3/4"

[8.0] "Kyona was so amazing here, from the little details to dramatic moments like when she defiantly removes the tape from her injured arm. I really enjoyed the encounter between these two in the GP last year so it was great to see them build off of that in the main event of Korakuen Hall. ****"

[9.0] "The best match on this show in my opinion and one of the best matches of this year in Stardom. Another great title defense."

[7.0] "This started off pretty amazingly with that lock-up. Very intense, and low-key unique way to start off a match in 2019. Kagetsu of course still has her neck all taped up, so after that amazing lock-up, Jungle goes to that - she grinds Kagetsu down with a cravate, and then twists that neck & starts pummeling it w/ strikes. Absolutely awesome stuff there, and the awesomeness continued once Kagetsu took over w/ a couple of shots to the body with the KNUCKLES - she then takes off Jungle's elbow pad, revealing her taped up elbow. Kagetsu naturally goes to work on it in an awesome fashion, and she takes things to the outside & does quite a number on the arm in the Korakuen crowd; that armbar was vicious & her just banging that arm on the wall was very brutal looking & sounding. After they go back to the ring, that is when the match starts losing me. I didn't like how quickly Jungle got the control back, but what I did like was her sick looking backbreaker-thing & the necklock leg scissors hold. They very much drop the selling after that though, and it gets kind of generic with them just busting out bombs. It's not interesting, but during that I did like the one last go at the arm by Kagetsu as she counters Jungle's pin attempt into a Kimura. Overall a good match, but this was heading towards something GREAT right up until they dropped the selling of the neck & arm completely & went with the bombs instead, so that makes it also a bit disappointing. ***1/4"