Given Toni Storm’s history in Japan, I had wondered if these two had faced each other before but they have not.
This was a strange match. Emi Sakura attacked Toni before the match with her cape, which Toni sold like it was a kendo stick and then from there, Emi seemed to have 80% of the offence. Despite her dominance, this one all came to a head once Toni hit her Hip Attack, followed by a Tornado DDT and then a Pendulum DDT. Excalibur put this over as Toni Storm’s resilience. This match reminded me of an Attitude Era match where you’d watch The Rock get his ass kicked for 5 straight minutes but you knew everything was just window dressing until he hit a Rock Bottom out of nowhere.
I can’t complain about any of the action but in leu of Toni just squashing Emi it felt like they were just buying time for the sake of saying it was even. Also, I’m docking 0.1 points because Paul Turner called for the match to start while Emi was attacking Toni with her cape. I mean, it’s a fucking cape so if we are to infer that, like me, a cape doesn’t seem like a legitimate weapon then that makes sense. But Toni was selling it. It’s a bit pedantic but I always watch pre-match attacks to make sure the referee checks with the victim whether they’re okay to start.
Watch this match on YouTube
Note: Just because I give a match a low rating doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it for what it was nor is it necessarily a commentary on the competitors. Not all matches are meant to be 3-to-5 star matches.
Toni Storm wins via pinfall
Toni Storm wins via pinfallElite
- Two pros, executing everything perfectly
Mid
- Ref starts match despite Toni getting attacked before the bell
- 80% heat
