Iwatani heads to V4 with the IWGP title
The first of five championship matches on ‘Title Fight Friday’ night one of New Beginning in Sapporo on February 23 saw the IWGP WOmen7s Championship on the line, NMayu Iwatani seeking her fourth defence against Mina Shirakawa.
The match started at a high pace, Iwatani scoring the first knockdown of the match before being caught charging in with a basement dropkick. That brought the control of the bout to Shirakwa, who targeted the knees of her foe, working toward a Figure Four. With her good right leg, Iwatani launched a single leg dropkick and a strong bridging suplex for two, but after a Dragon screw off the top rope, Iwatani fell into Mina’s Figure Four plans.
With her base weakened and needing to find distance, Iwatani launched a poison rana on Shirakawa and a brutal right hand swat. The champion grit her teeth as she landed a kick to the spine and a dragon suplex, before heading up to the top rope, and using a High Fly Flow to her challenger, a woman inspired to get into professional wrestling by Hiroshi Tanahashi. With disrespectful intentions, Iwatani went up again, but her moonsault only found the empty canvas.
Following right up, an electric chair from Shirakawa went into a stunning knee crusher. The Figure Four was locked in once more as Iwatani howled in pain. The champion took a long time in the hold but finally found the ropes, only to be met with a rolling elbow and backfist from Shirakawa; still there was no quit from the champion who countered a Figure Four Glamorous Driver with a Tombstone. A brutal double stomp set up the Moonsault on her second attempt for a near two.
As Iwatani continued to build momentum, Shirakawa desperately tried to apply the breaks. A hard charging champion was met with a Glamorous Collection Mina rollup for two, and shortly after, the two step Dragon Suplex secured victory.
