It’s time to end another season of ChocoPro. The roller-coaster has to go down for maintenance ever so often but not without first giving us another grand finale. We had another wild DDT wrestler appearing and a whole gauntlet awaiting the Best Bros as Ichigaya’s favourite wrestling company prepared to go out in style. In #231, it was a one-match special as Baliyan Akki and MAO took on the Drunken Dragons in a match that went everywhere, and in #232, the fireworks finale became a birthday bash as Best Bros had to run through a five-team gauntlet, trying to rack up as many wins as they could against friends and foes alike. Let’s get into the action.

ChocoPro #231

Baliyan Akki & MAO defeated Masahiro Takanashi & Choun Shiryu via Namaste Splash on Shiryu

Coming in hot#ChocoPro #gtmv pic.twitter.com/d3BsId43jK

— Rylino (@FlyingVTrigger) May 28, 2022

The season-end display of madness opened with a one-match show bringing in one of DDT’s maddest wrestlers, MAO. He was going to join Baliyan Akki against the forces of the Drunken Dragons, Choun Shiryu, and Masahiro Takanashi. MAO is unpredictable at the best of times so God only knows what the Chocolate Square was going to inspire in him. Takanashi opened with some madcap grappling with MAO and Akki took over by tangling with Shiryu. Even referee Suruga ended up getting involved as everyone got too hands-on with her. Chaos erupted and the usual one in, one out rule disintegrated into an all-out brawl. Basketballs, traffic cones, and walls all came into play as the fight just continued to escalate. MAO was more than happy to go along for the ride, matching the manic energy of everyone else. They even brought a bike into play that almost ran over Takanashi but Shiryu saved his life with a door. This was anarchy in the best way, breaking up the OTT weapons spots with some classic grappling and ChocoPro-style wrestling. After yet more intense back-and-forth the fight exploded to the outer street when the show went full-on Rojo Street Wrestling. Shiryu knackered his ankle trying to stomp from a wall and Akki splashed his way through bodies to the street with MAO following that with a Moonsault off a nearby pole. Back in the studio, Takanashi still wasn’t safe as MAO finally nailed him with the bike. That didn’t stop him from coming back and trying to wreck MAO. Shiryu and Akki continued to pick up the slack by beating the hell out of each other and the match culminated in another madcap everyone does everything flurry. MAO and Akki took the win with Akki’s Namaste Splash on Shiryu but this had been a very even match. I’ve purposefully been vague with this one because it’s an absolute riot. This match is available for free on YouTube so you should watch it. I believe this will cheer anyone up. it’s twenty minutes of anarchic wrestling excitement. What’s not to love? MAO tends to make anything better and felt like a perfect fit for ChocoPro. Hopefully, it’s not his only appearance.

ChocoPro #232 (Happy Collective Birthday, Best Bros!)

Best Bros (Baliyan Akki & Mei Suruga) defeated Dragon Ninja (Sayuri & Choun Shiryu) via Assisted Moonsault on Sayuri

The season finale was all dedicated to Best Bros joint birthday celebrations. What better way to celebrate than with a gauntlet? Five teams were going to test Best Bros across ten-minute matches. Win, lose or draw, it didn’t matter as the show would go on until all five teams had had their fight. Up first to face Akki and Suruga’s might, Choun Shiryu and Sayuri. Dragon Ninja has continuously been getting better since returning to action so a win here would be quite the upset to the festivities. This ended up being a great showcase for Dragon Ninja as they got to start out as a threat and remain so until they were put down. Sayuri is doing great and Shiryu was as malicious as ever, having to tank Mei’s goblin tactics to beat her up more. A win wasn’t on the cards for them tonight but they gave it a damn good effort and kicked the gauntlet off right by weakening Best Bros and lasting most of their allotted time limit.

Best Bros vs Yuna Mizumori & Sawasdee Kamen goes to a 10-minute draw

Akki and Sawasdee trade kicks#ChocoPro #gtmv pic.twitter.com/6FKhHrT4oi

— Rylino (@FlyingVTrigger) May 29, 2022

Next up were the Tropical Heroes, Yuna Mizumori, and Sawasdee Kamen. Both these fighters have been Akki’s mortal enemies over the seasons and now they were a unit. It started nicely with Mizumori singing the pair a happy birthday before the ass-kicking began. Even Kamen was onside this time, advertising the Mei merch. Or at least we thought so until he threw it on the floor in disgust. This one was super competitive. Mizumori and Kamen have given Akki and Mei some of their toughest challenges and this was no exception. It went to a time-limit draw with neither side able to find a way to keep the other down. Both teams proved to be too tough for the time limit and beat the hell out of each other whilst they had the time. Mizumori clashing with either Best Bro always makes magic and Kamen once again made for an excellent partner to the action.

Best Bros defeated Best Bromaneci (Antonio Honda & Tokiko Kirihara) via B3 on Kirihara

Black Comaneci always find a way to get scarier. This time Honda and Kirihara had come as Best Bromaneci, meaning they were doing their best to ape Akki and Suruga. They had brought some next-deviousness here to go with their usual prop-based shenanigans and evil musical might. Talk about a mirror match, eh? The devious duo struck quick with Comanecis and prop attacks with Kirihara once again dinging Suruga off the studio’s crane. Well, she tried, Suruga stopped that by popping a balloon in her face. When Best Bros started getting the better of them, Honda promised to give up after singing a song. Suruga used the song’s time to relax with juice and Kirihara danced along. As expected, the song was a ruse and Kirihara kicked the crap out of Akki. The Ace was able to counter her though and kicked Honda into a fan attack on Kirihara before rolling up the fake Apple Girl into B3. Best Bros had racked up a second win in their gauntlet but Honda and Kirihara had probably left the pair with nightmares after that one.

Best Bros vs Masahiro Takanashi & Hoshitango goes to a 10-minute draw

Just when you thought this mountain couldn’t get any higher, Hoshitango appeared. He was working alongside Masahiro Takanashi again and was going to give Suruga a birthday beatdown. As always, Suruga was doing her best to wind up the giant. Suruga’s antics caught him off-guard but his power was still too much for her, prompting Suruga to have a mid-match snack. Takanashi was there to pick the bones and the pair gave the birthday bros another tough, competitive match that ended in a draw. At this point, Best Bros were pushing close to half an hour of collective action and it wasn’t getting any easier. These ten minutes hurt but that didn’t stop Suruga from being a goblin and Akki from having to clean up the mess. I think Best Bros were thankful when that time limit bell rang and these two were carted away. It might not have been a win but they still had yet to lose in the gauntlet.

Shin Suzuki & Chie Koishikawa defeated Best Bros via Headstand Backslide on Akki

It's Chie chop time?#ChocoPro #gtmv pic.twitter.com/2OpREOaQo3

— Rylino (@FlyingVTrigger) May 29, 2022

Last but not least, the final team. Best Bros were desperately losing energy now so what cruel irony it was that the last team they were to face was Too Much Energy Chie Koishikawa and the Headstand King, Shin Suzuki. These two might just be the Best Bros’ top rivals with Koishikawa always gunning for Suruga and Suzuki being a continuous foil to Akki. They started nice and quickly jumped the Best Bros making the most of the energy they had. This started off as a mauling and ended things with another competitive, last-gasp fight for the Best Bros. They’d tried to go undefeated throughout the gauntlet but this final, hyperactive team had cost them. I’m always thankful to see more fighting between Akki and Suzuki as I’ll never get sick of it and to see Koishikawa end the season on a win made me smile. The even cooler thing, Suzuki just got a pinfall win over the Super Asia champion. That means he more than likely earns a title shot next season. I cannot wait to see that. As it stands, this was a great way to end the season. We got to see all the ChocoPro favourites and Best Bros had an almost flawless run. The next season just got a whole lot more interesting.

All images courtesy of Gatoh Move, DOGU, FlyingVTrigger, Videos courtesy of Gatoh Move YouTube