Thankfully in the never-ending world of pro-wrestling there’s
always a chance to make a second impression.
At Battle of the Valley Mercedes challenged her former colleague Kairi for
the newly established IWGP Womens title and even on a show headlined by the
famous rivalry of Okada Vs Tanahashi, it was the womens match that felt like
the main event - Echos of Takeover Brooklyn.
To the fans in the arena, Mercedes’
Tokyo Dome disappointment didn’t matter, she was a bonefide star and the reason
they were live in attendance.
Mercedes took the early advantage in the match, showing
no-ring rust as she ran through some lucha inspired armdrags and threw Kairi into
the turnbuckle posts before focusing in on the arm to reduce the impact of her
cutlass backfist and insane elbow drop down the pike. As popular as Mercedes is, once the bell rings
she’s at her best when she’s a heel and here she leaned into those mannerisms that
have served her well in the past. Mercedes
paid tribute to Hana Kimura in her entrance with the gas mask and furry boots,
but as the match got more intense, Mercedes ripped off one of the furry boots
and chucked it at Kairi.
This wasn’t just the Moné show though. Kairi put on a great performance throughout
the match, incredible facials and selling to put over Mercedes offence, but
when it was her time to attack she made her impact. Her rolling spear was a highlight, her pirate
march corner elbow is always over, and in kayfabe her ‘Anchor’ double leg submission
really worked well against Mercedes who’s knees would have taken a self-inflicted
pounding from the multiple meteora’s she went for in this high-stakes match.
As the match heated up, Mercedes paid tribute to her best
friend with a Belly-to-Bayley nearfall which the fans loved. I hate the three-amigos tribute spot to Eddie
Guerrero, so when Kairi countered the third suplex into a nasty vertical drop
DDT I was howling. This match took place on the same day as The Elimination
Chamber, so I was certainly not in the mood
to see more ref bumps in big matches when Mercedes pulled the referee in harms
way to eat Kairi’s backfist. Thankfully
this one set up for a big set piece spot up on the ramp resulting in Kairi powerbombing
Mercedes through a table with the chefs kiss of her celebrating by kicking Moné’s fake dollar bills from her entrance down to
her limp body. Kairi dragged Mercedes
back into the ring and attempted the insane elbow, only for Mercedes to counter
by raising her feet – a textbook counter to a top rope move you’ve seen 1,000
times but looked incredible this time around.
Case in point, this is followed up immediately by Mercedes doing a frog
splash and Kairi getting her feet up which looked less impressive.
After some lovely counter-wrestling, Mercedes was able to
get Kairi into a Gory special position and float her over into a DDT for the Moné Maker to end the match and win the title. There must have been some nerves from
Mercedes about executing her new finisher after the botch inside the Tokyo Dome,
but this time everything went swimmingly.
Mercedes is in a really exciting time in her career. She was already in my mind the best womens wrestler the US has ever seen even if WWE never fully appreciated her, but now she has the chance to break new ground by being a top level drawing star in the business and establishing the womens division in New Japan. Selfishly for me it’ll be great to see her have all these fresh matches with great wrestlers from Stardom rather than get back on the WWE hamster wheel against the wrestlers she’s spent the last decade facing. I always admire it when wrestlers bet on themselves and go for a fresh challenge (look at Jon Moxley), and in Moné I’ve no doubt this next chapter of her career will be a successful one.
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