[4.0] "I'm catching up on Stardom and other women's wrestling over the last 3 years, and I'm already getting the impression that Syuri is a bit overrated. She's clearly talented from what I've seen, but I'm not seeing that next gear to justify her praise just yet. Here's another match of hers that is extremely overrated. They started with nice grappling exchanges (more of that please, Syuri) until ASUKA began hitting some shitty looking aerial attacks. I was getting very little from ASUKA's offense in general here. I was very disappointed by the submission work because none of it led to anything and there was no real psychology or story being told. It was heatless through and through. The crowd wasn't hot either. The finishing stretch felt non-existent because the pace never changed. There was no added intensity or struggle. It just ended. **"
[6.0] "I'm genuinely really shocked that this match is so highly regarded. It was a good little match but nothing more. I can only assume that it benefitted from the 'emotional bump' of featuring one of Hana's close friends going against the new ace of the same promotion that Hana had worked for up until the time of her passing. They started with some nice legit grappling exchanges before Asuka opened the match up with some somewhat sloppy but mostly okay high-flying/aerial attacks. Both then trading some pretty impressively stiff strikes and going for some more complex and damaging submission holds, though those submissions never led to anything meaningful. Their rapid big-moves trades and few individual big spots were all pretty good, though I thought Syuri was the more impressive one due to her attacks usually being more explosive and just featuring more precise technique. Asuka had some good attacks of her own, mainly her strikes, but her best usually had annoyingly obvious thigh slaps for added sound, whereas Syuri either used natural impact for her strikes or at least hid her own thigh slaps much better. The finish felt pretty anti-climactic, especially since I was expecting some godly finishing stretch to justify the match's high rating, but instead it just felt like Syuri didn't have to actually struggle that much to put Asuka away, and nor did Asuka really put up much of a real fight to try stay in the match. This was still a low-level good matc, but only about 1/10th the number of people would be talking/have talked about it had it occurred on literally any other show. ***1/4"
[7.0] "This was good but these two are capable of better. I liked pretty much everything they did. The match was structured well, the grappling was sublime, the strikes by both were neat and they got me invested. It's just that the match never felt like it ever hit second gear."
[6.0] "This was a decent match. The wrestling was solid overall, but it? s not something that would make me consider this a MOTYC or anything like that. It kinda felt like an exhibition-type match with the slow pace, and it lacked that extra bit of intensity that you would want to see in a main event."
[9.0] "Finally getting able to watch this fantastic match makes me very happy. ASUKA is having an incredible year, and this whole show celebrating Hana Kimura even moreso than last year was great to see. To see Syuri vs ASUKA is a rare treat we should celebrate. ****1/4"
[9.0] "Ich weiß das ich da etwas kleinlich bin aber als ich das Main Event sah wurde immer VENY vs Syuri eingeblendet aber hier und bei vielen anderen Reviews Seite steht ASUKA. Das Joshi Match selbst war fantastisch (****1/4)."
[10.0] "Fantastic match, these are two of the best wrestlers in current joshi for my money and they truly delivered an emotional and powerful match here. Great stuff."
[9.0] "Two of the best in the world doing the thing, without a big build or any story outside of going out there and putting on a great match. A beautiful tribute to Hana. Would love to see this again with a storyline build, despite how difficult the promotional politics could make that."
[8.0] "Awesome match! Both wrestlers gave us a great performance and delivered an awesome match, filled with amazing technical skills and even better sequences and counters. Perfect way to end the second Hana Kimura Memorial Show. ****"
[7.0] "I was completely bored for half the match. Asuka is a great performer, but here even her skills couldn't help to get me involved. Extremely overrated match just because Syuri is here. And again typical Syuri's senseless epic scheme that did more harm than good. Last year's match between Asuka and Kagetsu was much better. And only the final part with really cool fight saved this match from being a failure. I enjoyed it, I felt something in the end, so I can rate this match *** 3/4"
[9.0] "for an exibition match they did a great match as it was for a world title championship. both competitors showed the best they had for win and probably Hana would appreciate so much"
[9.0] "Top tier match as one would anticipate from these two wrestlers. I loved the transitions and counters between them with their strikes also being particularly crisp (the kicks from ASUKA! ) Fantastic closing minutes with a lot of good near-falls. Perfect way to cap off an event like this."
[9.0] "This match stuck out like a sore thumb on the Bagus show - and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. These two went all out with vicious strikes, crisp moves and countermoves, and fantastic selling. The beginning was a little slow but it built up to a hot crescendo and delivered one of the finest Joshi matches that you'll see this year. VENY continues to be one of the best kept secrets in Pro Wrestling and hopefully more matches like this will change that."
[8.0] "Hana Kimura Memorial Produce Bagus : Syuri worked well on the arms of ASUKA and the selling was pretty good. The first minutes are good with the grappling and the work of Syuri but the 9 last minutes are so great, they showed a great fighting spirit, both had some good comebacks and countered well the moves of each others. The near falls were realy good like the near falls at 1. The strikes with the kicks and elbows were good too. Good finish. (****)"
[10.0] "A match that played to both women's strength and a beautiful tribute to Hana. Syuri felt like 2021 Syuri and ASUKA/Veny was a great underdog. It is one of the best matches this year both in a work rate and emotional level. Go out of your way to watch this."
[9.0] "A legit awesome match between two of the best wrestlers in the world regardless of gender. I watch Syuri super often since she's on every Stardom show and she's obviously amazing, but ASUKA I only watch sometimes due to her being freelance and me not having access to every show she's on and every single time I'm mesmerized by how good she is. Such a great main event. ****1/4"
[9.0] "Absolutely beautifully worked match with 5* level wrestling. The dynamic of Syuri slowing down the match heavily allowed for ASUKA's explosive offense to shine through, with the only downside being the highly slowed beginning of the match meant the latter parts of the match felt like they wrapped up just a bit too quickly - by the time the finish hit I was still gagging for more. This was a dream match that very much lived up to the hype and yet there's still room for a lot more to happen between these two."
[9.0] "The reigning World of Stardom and one of the top freelancers in Japan of the last several years had a dream match at a tribute show. If that's not evidence of how big a deal this show was, then I don't know what is. The match had a somewhat slow start but before long, it really picked up. The final five minutes were excellent, with some close kick outs, great strikes from ASUKA and an awesome finish. Best of all, it was under 20 minutes, yet the perfect length for a main event. ASUKA got a lot of offense in, it was a well-balanced and well-paced match and there was a lot to like about it. Was it a MOTY contender like many had hoped? I think it fell short of that, but the sheer fact that it happened is a big enough deal as is. Context and post match included, I'm giving this a 9."
