In the first match, Kakeru Sekiguchi & Miku Aono defeated Ayumi Hayashi & Momo Tani in a good showing by all four wrestlers, especially Sekiguchi. She has mostly been wrestling in tag team matches as of late for many different promotions and seems to be comfortable in them, so it is very likely that when she eventually captures a title, it will be tag team gold.
In the second match, Kaori Yoneyama defeated Noa Igarashi. Yoneyama had quite a busy schedule this week- on August 11 she wrestled for PURE-J, and on August 12 her attention was on her own promotion, YMZ. Noa Igarashi likes to give out treats to members of the audience- I received two.
In the third match, HIROe defeated Himeka Arita. HIROe, who usually wrestles for WAVE, was a very good opponent for Arita, who is one of the stronger wrestlers in AgZ. HIROe is very strong as well, and was able to withstand Arita's power moves and deliver some of her own. Hopefully they will face each other again sometime in the future.
In the fourth match, Hanako Nakamori & Tae Honma defeated Miyuki Takase & Yumiko Hotta. Very good showing by all four, and things were especially interesting whenever Nakamori and Hotta faced off. Whenever Hotta was in the ring with Honma, she used her decades of experience to outwrestle her. Whenever she encountered Nakamori however, it seemed like Hotta's MMA instincts kicked in (she has a 5-5 record in MMA), because she would intensely attack Nakamori, even fighting her outside the ring and into the audience at one point. Nakamori is tough enough to handle it though, and a one-on-one match between the two would surely be interesting.
And then it was time for the main event. Saori Anou began her career in AgZ and has been with them from day one of the promotion. After also making appearances in Stardom, AJPW, WAVE, FMW, JWP, DDT, and PURE-J (where she is Princess Of Pro Wrestling Champion and the longest reigning Champion in the history of the championship), Anou became AWG Champion in AgZ in November 2018 and one of the main talents in the promotion, turning away challenges from Giulia (who has appeared in ZERO1), Miyuki Takase, Kakeru Sekiguchi, and Tae Honma. Her skills and showmanship are proof that she earned her place at the top of AgZ.
On this night, Saori Anou was facing her toughest challenge for the AWG Championship yet- Reika Saiki. Although not well known outside of Japan (most likely because she has not wrestled outside of Asia yet), she is well known to fans of the Japanese pro-wrestling scene for her appearances in DDT and other Japanese promotions. With her youth, power, and unique look, it's only a matter of time before she is well known to fans outside of Japan as well.
Reika Saiki dominated the match early, overwhelming Saori Anou with her strength.
But Saori Anou, a fighting Champion, took every opportunity she could to comeback with a quick and aggressive defense. Those were Anou's advantages in this match- while Reika Saiki is the stronger of the two, Anou is faster and is slightly more experienced in the ring. And she made the most of this.
The comeback was short-lived, as Reika Saiki again took control, attempting to make Saori Anou submit with a half crab and then a Torture Rack.
Refusing to submit, Saori Anou made a final attempt to win and retain her AWG Championship.
In the end, Reika Saiki's superior power proved to be too much to overcome.
After sixteen minutes of action, Reika Saiki became the new AWG Champion.
Reika Saiki becoming AWG Champion will definitely be a boost for AgZ. She is a bigger name than all of the wrestlers on the AgZ roster, so Saiki as Champion will bring more attention to the AgZ product, and having Saiki as part of the AWG Championship lineage will be a positive for the promotion in the future as well.
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