Sareee vs. Kaoru Ito in Diana on 2/10/18 Review

Event: Diana Home Match 13
Date: February 10th, 2018
Location: Kawasaki AXE RING in Kawasaki, Japan
Announced Attendance: Unknown

It is extremely rare for me to just review one match from a show, but it is equally rare for a match from Diana to appear anywhere I can see it, so here we are. Diana has posted a few match videos on their new Youtube channel, including this one I am reviewing now, and since I have missed Sareee I wanted to see how the match was. They only released this one match from the event, but since it is the main match I wanted to watch I am not complaining too loudly.

Sareee’s 2017 was interesting to say the least. She started the year as part of the Diana roster, but in February she left the promotion and joined SEAdLINNNG. She stayed in SEAdLINNNG until October, when it was announced she was leaving that promotion and becoming a Freelancer. But she ended up back in Diana again, right where she started. She is a fantastic young wrestler but appears to be having issues finding her place in the Joshi scene. Kaoru Ito is a respected veteran from the heyday of AJW, she still regularly wrestles in Diana. Ito has the clear experience advantage here even though Sareee never goes down easily to anyone.

They start with a test of strength, which Ito gets the better of, but Sareee knocks Ito to the mat and applies a kneelock. She lets go after a moment and starts stomping on Ito’s leg before dropkicking it, she goes back to the kneelock but Ito gets out of it and throws Sareee in the corner. Lariat by Ito and she applies a crab hold, she then applies a camel clutch before letting go and hitting a scoop slam. Cover by Ito but Sareee bridges out of it, clubbing blows by Sareee and she puts Ito in a crossface. Ito breaks the hold and stands on Sareee near the ropes, side slam by Ito but Sareee blocks the chokeslam attempt and hits an armdrag. Dropkick by Sareee but Ito hits a hard elbow, Sareee goes off the ropes and applies a bodyscissors roll-up for two. Back up they trade elbows, lariat by Ito but Sareee hits a drop toehold and dropkicks Ito while she is against the ropes. Another dropkick by Sareee, she picks up Ito and applies a waistlock, but Ito breaks it. Sareee goes off the ropes but Ito blocks the bodyscissors roll-up and hits a suplex, footstomp by Ito and she hits a senton for a two count. Ito gets on the second turnbuckle but Sareee recovers and tosses her to the mat, Sareee then gets on the second turnbuckle and hits a diving footstomp.

Sareee then goes all the way up and delivers a second diving footstomp, cover by Sareee but Ito kicks out. Sareee picks up Ito but Ito delivers a hard lariat, uranage by Ito and Sareee falls out of the ring. Baseball slide by Ito, they both get back into the ring and Ito goes for a powerbomb, but Sareee reverses it into a sunset flip. Ito goes for another powerbomb but Sareee reverses it into a hurricanrana, she picks up Ito and hits a German suplex hold for two. Sareee goes off the ropes but Ito levels her with a lariat, Ito picks up Sareee and finally nails the powerbomb, but Sareee barely gets a shoulder up. Ito goes to the top turnbuckle but Sareee recovers and joins her, Ito pushes Sareee down but Sareee gets back up and knocks Ito out of the ring. Ito keeps trying to get back into the ring with Sareee blocking her as the referee makes the count, Sareee ends up on the apron as the referee reaches five (apparently Diana uses a five count), but the referee counts out Ito and declares Sareee the winner! Sareee wins by Countout.

This is definitely a “small show” match. I love Sareee’s energy, and she hit everything she had against Ito, but Ito at this stage of her career is pretty limited. She works ok within those limitations, and the passion is still there, but she really can’t go at the pace you’d expect from a Sareee match. Not all the offensive looked great due to these issues, but the bulk of the action was solid and Sareee’s dropkicks were great. The ending was either botched, or dumb, I can’t tell which one as Sareee was actually out of the ring when the referee did the “five” count. I am not sure if Sareee was expecting him to count slower, or if they have some weird rules I don’t know about. Odd ending beside, this wasn’t a bad match but hovered around “slightly above average.” Worth a watch if you missed watching Sareee as much as I did, but nothing special overall.