Miyu Yamashita vs. Thunder Rosa

[3.0] "What the fuck? Yamashita can't get a win with her finishing moves, Rosa always kicks out, and Miyu, the absolute monster and the Ace of TJPW, used a roll-up to defeat this another unbeatable saint girl from saint AEW who didn't sell Miyu's killing strikes at all. I saw a few good things, but this is nothing, because the match wasn't interesting, Rosa's positioning and selling is terrible, Yamashita looked weak, and this is just disgusting."

[3.0] "One of the worst single matches of Yamashita, if not the worst, is the absolute lack of mutual understanding between the rivals, which made the crucial moments at the end awkward, and even here everything was disfigured by the ending. Low-kicks storytelling was terrible (*1/2)."

[7.0] "I liked how Miyu Yamashita kicked and in general she was very technical and it is clear that she is a worthy representative of Japanese women's wrestling. At the same time, she is beautiful and charismatic, I am waiting for her to visit AEW, maybe even she will win for the second time. Thunder Rosa was charged to fight and when she put on the mouth guard, a tough fight began and overall I was completely satisfied. I'm waiting for their big rematch."

[6.0] "This did not click at all for me and further evidence how off the boil Rosa has been since she won the title. These two just did not click at all"

[5.0] "This was fine due to Yamashita basically carrying the entire load, while Rosa, who hasn't looked good in ages in her home company, came off even worse than usual when compared to possibly the best female wrestler in the world. I think its time we have a real discussion about whether Thunder Rosa is as good as people believe."

[6.0] "This was a great treat for AEW and TJPW fans alike. Good exhibition style match and a nice way to introduce Miyu to those unfamiliar with her work. I am more of a 90's joshi fan so in my humble opinion, not many of the current era (including Miyu) come close to the striking of greats like Dynamite Kansai and Toshiyo Yamada. Nonetheless her kicks are super impressive! Thunder Rosa got some useful mileage out of this match after a few hiccups on AEW programming. The rollup pin was a neat way of protecting TR and set up what'll most likely be a banger on Dynamite or Rampage. I feel they held back a bit in order to save the real work for the eventual title match."

[8.0] "That match was really great. Thunder Rosa and Miyu Yamashita worked so well together. Lots of passion for women? s wrestling was shown. The kicks from both wrestlers looked really brutal, and the near-falls were very well placed. Yamashita picking up the victory was a huge surprise, and I look forward to their rematch for the AEW Women? s World Championship. 8/10"

[5.0] "A pretty solid match with a few blemishes in some whiffs and really uninspired booking but the right outcome."

[7.0] "It's a good way to see new talent, especially in Japan, there is plenty of talent, I liked to see that change of script where the rival wins against the champion, maybe we will see Miyu in the USA as part of a weekly show, or a PPV, who knows."

[7.0] "A nice strikefest that did a great job showcasing how good Thunder can be in the ring with someone who's of equal skill. I hope we get a re-match between these two fairly soon for the AEW Women's title."

[7.0] "I'm constantly unimpressed by Thunder Rosa in AEW, but this match makes me thing that maybe his lackluster matches are a reflection of a set of lackluster rivals from a lackluster division."

[4.0] "Just a bit boring to be honest. Some of the moves looked nice but it just felt like people mechanically exchanging moves without much else behind it. Several of Yamashita's kicks didn't even come close to looking like they landed. This really couldn't hold my interest, I started zoning out around the halfway mark. The very silent atmosphere due to COVID restrictions didn't help."

[8.0] "Pretty solid! Good exchanges between Rosa and Yamachita, I would have enjoyed it more if it had gone longer, looking forward to any future matches between the two though."

[8.0] "Slow paced to begin, it was a test of kicks early before the action really got going. Yamashita and Rosa clicked pretty quickly, and the last few minutes were tremendous, with Yamashita stuffing a Rosa roll-up attempt to defeat the AEW Women's World Champion. Looking forward to the rematch for the title on an AEW show soon."

[8.0] "A good first time ever match, even if they seemed to be holding something back for the rematch. Miyu's great at everything. Thunder seemed to play ball and lay in some of her kicks."

[5.0] "I wasn't feeling this one and it didn't sell me on a rematch. It all seemed pretty standard, including the finish. It's the kind of match which makes you feel like you're reading the match outline and the resulting angle rather than watching and getting fully invested. Checklists and necessities. I don't think it was horrible but there's just not a lot there."

[5.0] "This is the standard "beat the champ" special. Roll up win that doesn't really mean much just to protect the champ to set up a win on home turf. Fair enough, but not very interesting."

[4.0] "Even if both wrestlers tried to hold back before their 'bigger' match, this match didn't create much interest in seeing them go at it again - it stuck in the second gear and never really went anywhere. There were some good moments here and there, but nothing stood out, and then the finish didn't make anyone look good. Relationship between AEW and Joshi Puroresu just doesn't work so far in one way or another, something has to change."

[2.0] "Well maybe you could say they save their work "that I don't think it will deliver" for their next showdown but that won't change the fact that this match was a disaster, while every one in TJPW always sell all Miyu's offensive fatally and shown her as an unrivaled opponent and on top of This promotion, one of AEW's untouchable angels comes in and sells her attacks catastrophically, I don't know if she's missing the selling ability or she just doesn't want to do it, the important thing is that she didn't do it right at all and worse than that at the end, Miyu who is 10 times experience than Rosa Need a Roll up to win? I mean the action was nothing wow that I even cared more about it than the result or how they both shown out and I could tell they both shown out badly.Well maybe you could say they save their work "that I don't think it will deliver" for their next showdown but that won't change the fact that this match was a disaster, while every one in TJPW always sell all Miyu's offensive fatally and shown her as an unrivaled opponent and on top of This promotion, one of AEW's untouchable angels comes in and sells her attacks catastrophically, I don't know if she's missing the selling ability or she just doesn't want to do it, the important thing is that she didn't do it right at all and worse than that at the end, Miyu who is 10 times experience than Rosa Need a Roll up to win? I mean the action was nothing wow that I even cared more about it than the result or how they both shown out and I could say they both shown out badly."

[8.0] "Despite some sluggish wrestling from Rosa at the start, she turned it around, and this became a great match. Hopefully, it will build to an even better one when Yamashita challenges for the title. It is a bit amusing that they clearly used a roll-up finish to "protect" Rosa, when a roll-up is actually a perfectly clean way to win a match and is anything but a "cheap" win (see Misawa-Tsuruta or any Flair-Steamboat). ****"

[8.0] "This was so good. I hoped, weirdly, Thunder Rosa would lose just so we could get a rematch over in the US hopefully on a big AEW PPV. MIyu and quite frankly Rosa deserves that. For that I think they can go even higher, but what they did here was fantastic too. MIyu Yamashita is one of the best wrestlers in the world, after all. ****"

[7.0] "An very regular match but entertaning, the ending was bad with a small package ending the match, I hope the rematch in AEW will be better"

[9.0] "In terms of ebbs and flows, this was the match of the night. I have not seen anyone do this to MIYU before, just completely dominate her from pillar to post, and have the crowd actually screaming for MIYU to do anything to fight back. They were messy at times but there was a lot of pride in this match from two wrestlers of two different companies and they were laying it on thick. Emotions are the most important part of wrestling and how they played Rosa as the foreign champion destroying their ACE was just great. The ending with Rosa initiating a roll-up only to be rolled up herself floored me, and the crowd. I can't believe they actually did this! They had MIYU WIN! I knew it was always a possibility since it's clear Khan doesn't hold ROSA in the same regard as Baker but I can't believe it actually happened. This is huge for the promotion and even if MIYU loses which she most likely will the quality of performance they will be able to dish out are gunna turn a lot of heads towards TJPW. Just a Wonderful match; so glad it came together."

[3.0] "This was the opposite of the Itoh/Windsor match, which was heavy hitting and dynamic, with a sense of progression and stability. It was flimsy, loose and aimless. Every time I watch Thunder Rosa wrestle, I'm never quite sure what kind of wrestler she wants to be or what kind of match she wants to have. It always feels disorganized. The placement and timing of the moves, the transitions and tempo of the match, everything is disorienting. **"