[7.0] "Meiko's final WWE match. A nice house show match in Japan that WWE have posted to their YouTube. Could have done without the Tiffy MITB false cash in. Well worked, Meiko looked great and went hard and Bayley more than held her end of the deal up."
[8.0] "Does this count as a title defence since WWE uploaded the footage from the time they were in Japan? If so, this match was very good. Could have lived without the Tiffany stuff tho but I understand why it happened. ***3/4"
[7.0] "This was a very good match. It's cool that the WWE Vault Channel released this match because it was a lot of fun to watch. Meiko Satomura is a great women's wrestler, and it's a shame that she isn't killing it on the main roster with the other women, but that's what happens when you're 45 years old and probably can't do a full time schedule like she could if she was 10 years younger. Bayley had a good run in 2023 as WWE Women's Champion, having already gone through her heel phase for a few years. She's not the same NXT or early main roster Bayley, she's more mature now. This match took place in Japan, and the fans were very respectful and loud for both women. They showed great chemistry here and could easily have a great match given 15-20 minutes. Tiffany Stratton came out to tease cashing in her MITB contract only to be thwarted, something that would become a staple for several months. Bayley won with the Bayley to Belly suplex, followed up with the Rose Plant. ***3/4"
[7.0] "it's incredibly cool that this match happened at all. Meiko's offense is really nice and stiff, I like bayley's babyface action. I especially enjoyed the opening lock-up, with Meiko looking like she's tempting Bayley into a regular greco-roman lock. Bayley's tentative expression -> Meiko immediately kicking her to the ground is great. I liked the bit after the Cash-in where Meiko finally screams in frustration. Structurally solid too, Meiko starts on the advantage by wearing Bayley down with stiff strikes and technical wrestling. However, Bayley's a vet in her own right with that incredible babyface fire."
[8.0] "(Grade:B+) I wished they did this actually televised or on a PPV cause I really enjoyed this match! It felt like both women were engaged in this match Meiko not holding back on her strikes & Bayley coming up with some neat counters to Meiko's offense and putting in some striking of her own. The Tiffany interference didn't ruin nor impacted the match and continued as usual which I quite enjoyed. definitely one of the more sleeper matches of 2024."
[7.0] "In about 20 years, this is gonna be one of those fun curiosities that comes up. Who knew Bayley and Meiko ever worked? A fun match that both wrestlers clearly enjoyed, Bayley seems especially fired up. Never quite reaches special levels but it's solid as hell. The Tiffy-ference in the middle is a bit unnecessary, but they made it work."
[7.0] "[3.5*] Super special match. This is the kind of match that you watch with a smile on your face from start to finish. It was so cool seeing Meiko doing stiff kicks on Bayley, I had a blast. I actually think the match over delivered in terms of workrate too, specially for a live event. Loved it, pretty good match."
[7.0] "Very charming match, particularly with this combination of presentation and setting. Meiko's offence remains staggeringly snappy, giving this house show meeting an immediate crunch which to her credit, Bayley is more than happy to embrace. Better yet, she even makes a stylistic adjustment or two, widening the overlap between them and finding a tone suited to Sumo Hall. The result is a genuinely good match, maintaining its house show framework but reaching a little further in content as clearly, this matters to both grapplers. ***1/4"
[8.0] "[8] Fantastic match that really showed off the best in both women. Was not a huge fan of the Tiffy spot, but it was a good break that kept the match from going overlong. Really good physicality in the moves from both, lots of meaty hits that were really satisfying and showed off the skills both women have cultivated over their careers. The match finish did feel a bit abrupt, but it doesn't greatly diminish the incredible product put on in the ring before it."
[5.0] "Nice little relatively basic match that happened to be for the title, exactly what I would expect from a house show. Bayley didn't wrestle like she was extra motivated to make a special memory out of this unique opportunity, she worked hard though and moved around a lot (both wrestlers worked all sides of the ring), so I guess this is where her current in-ring level is. Satomura did her greatest hits, but couldn't care less about trying to feed less obviously than she did, there wasn't anything extra in her trademark intensity either. Stratton tried to run in with MITB gimmick right when the action started to pick up, which killed the momentum and made finishing stretch totally heatless. **3/4"
[7.0] "This match makes me really sad that Satomura never got a main roster run in WWE. I'm probably overrating it just because of how cool it is to see happen, but I still enjoyed it a lot despite it being a house show match without much in the way of stakes or intrigue outside of the novelty of seeing these two meet."
[5.0] "Not so hot. Everyone wants to like this match in theory but the promotion works against it. No build, everyone's in house show mode, Satomura is unthawed from a block of ice when she should've been dominating on the main roster for like the past five years. The simple moves performed look excellent because the workers are excellent at doing them, but they're to add to future video packages instead of being functional in the match itself. The crowd is...not dead, exactly, but they're a Japanese crowd trying to duplicate the American-style chanting with all the same dreary "This Is Awesome" obligations. No context for why they should care. Then when Tiffany Stratton came out and soiled things up with a teased MITB cash-in (again, this MAYBE would've worked at a house show in Ames, Iowa in 1997 but not here) it just ruined the moment to build off of an already short, basic match and dropped this by a full point. Ultimately this makes Satomura no different a hire than Funaki or Yoshi Tatsu as just "an Asian" to put on a card and give a special title shot in their home country that doesn't really matter because it's the same dreck you'd see stateside. Every non-sex pest in the WWE deserves a lot better than what they get."
[8.0] "Very fun dream match, very hard hitting and back and forth with good back and forth, intensity, pacing and structure sir the match didnt over stay its welcome. Meiko dominates Bayley with strikes for a lot of this but Bayley still retained."
"A very good match, and I am so happy that WWE decided to tape it. Meiko is a great fighter and I hope that in the near future she will have her last run on tv, maybe in NXT. ***1/2"
[8.0] "Matches like this remind me of how much I've missed Meiko on TV. With her retirement coming next year, hopefully she'll get her time to shine on Raw or SmackDown before she wraps it up. But I digress, because this was a very good match, especially for a non-televised event. You can tell how much this match means to both competitors, although the attempted cash-in by Tiffany Stratton derailed the pacing somewhat. I'd love for a rematch on PPV, because these two have great chemistry."
"(6.0) One of the better Bayley matches in recent memory because it actually is a huge callback to her matches with Asuka and being an underneath baby face. Now that she's easily among the 5 most accomplished women's wrestlers in the WWE cannon, she's less of an underdog in her career, but against the final boss, Meiko makes her relive her past failures. Even a sliding clothesline that Bayley fights for early on and later delivers feels monumental, she's hyper aware that any big blow from Satomura here could be the end of her run. The match is severely hindered by the fact that just as it gets going, the current Women's Money in the Bank holder Tiffany Stratton appears to tease a cash in, it's a brief moment in the match that pops the crowd, but it kills the alure of the match and distracts from what's happening. The "Rose Plant" is also a horrendous finishing maneuver."
[6.0] "Enjoyable match. The 1 camera set up made it seem raw and unfortunately we didn't get much of the crowd noise. 2 solid pros working a good logical match. ***1/4 range"
[8.0] "It's very rare when WWE releases a house show match, especially a recent one, but this one was different from usual, as Bayley was defending her title against one of her idols, Meiko Satomura, in her home country of Japan. This was very good, wrestled more like Meiko's style than WWE style, and even Tiffany Stratton's interference was brief. They kicked it into gear after that, and although there wasn't going to be a title change, it was still a super fun watch. Satomura is retiring next year, Bayley must feel happy she got to have a match with her before it was too late."
[7.0] "A really good house show match. Despite wrestling for nearly 3 decades, Meiko is still wrestling at a supremely high level. She controls most of this match, using her experience and striking advantage to get the best of Bayley on multiple occasions. Bayley is also great here, not only at taking some of the pretty stiff kicks that Meiko throws at her, but also pulling out some pretty sick looking moves herself, such as a sunset flip into the corner and a really great looking sliding lariat. There's a cash in attempt by Tiffany Stratton, which is ultimately thwarted by Meiko, before Bayley eventually picks up the win with the Rose Plant. Really good match, and god bless the WWE Vault channel. Would love to see more house show matches uploaded there. ***3/4"
[8.0] "Really good match, been a while since i've seen Meiko in action and she's not lost a step. Looking forward to her retirement your, I hope she goes out without regret. Bayley looked really good here too, one of her better matches this year"
[8.0] "This was one of the best Bayley matches I've seen in a while. Her and Meiko go pretty hard throughout the match and its build really well with Meiko getting the best of the champ for the majority of the bout. There were some pretty good nearfalls even for a house show match, so I'm glad to have been able to watch it."
[8.0] "Nun, ich bedanke mich echt das man es als Ausnahme macht das zu werten . Zur Info das komplette Title Match ist auf dem YouTube Kanal WWE Vault hochgeladen. Inklusive Entrance von beiden. Das wird hier ein Hidden Gem werden und echt das ist ein Dream Singles Match. Nie zuvor hätte ich je gedacht das Bayley auf Meiko treffen wird aber Ja es gab es und es war sau stark (***3/4). Inklusive einen versuchten Cash In von Tiffany."
