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Alex

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  1. Alex
    Stardom All-Star Dream Cinderella PPV 2021.03.03
    Nippon Budokan
    I have no idea why they booked such a big show in a big venue where you can’t fill it with people.
     High Speed Championship: AZM (c) vs Natsupoi
    Of course, they do the superfast paced matrix intro for the match.  First diving double stomp looked pretty weak, but the second one looked ok.  AZM pretty much was dominating and did a flying nothing so Natsupoi could get a dropkick in.  Natsupoi bridges are gorgeous.  Lots of pinning attempts in the home stretch, Natsupoi hits three bridging/rolling German and gets the straight jacket suplex for the pin!  New champ!  Match was a pretty good spotfest, most of the moves hit pretty well.  AZM being only 18 is crazy.
     Goddess of Stardom Championship: Maika & Himeka (c) vs Natsuko Tora & Saki Kashima
    Cool spot where Himeka gets both Oedo Tai members in the Torture Rack. This match felt like filler, they just didn’t get a good rhythm going.
    Nice to see that the WWE let Io Shirai cut a promo for Stardom.  Tanahashi!  Kairi Hojo!
    Main Card:
    All-Star Rumble
    I do prefer the Rumble format over Battle Royales, it’s just strange they don’t give more time in-between entrances but granted this isn’t the main event.  Because of this the ring fills up really fast.  Lots of comedy spots.  Lady C is the first to get eliminated by Kyoko Inoue.  Inoue gets another Lariat for another elimination but is ganged up afterwards and gets pinned.  Mima Shimoda! Chigusa Nagayo and Kikutaro are the last to enter.  Kikutaro doing his schtick, being a creepy old man, really could have done with this.  Unagi Sayaka ultimately wins over the Cosmic Angels girl in the final three.
    Momo Watanabe vs Nanae Takahashi (SEAdLINNNG)
    Lots of strikes to start off, Nanae gets the early advantage after a german suplex and more strikes.  These girls were working their asses off!  Very good, though short match, barely 10 minutes long.
    SWA Undisputed Title: Syuri (c) vs Konami
    Matwork opens with Konami getting the extension of the armbar, and the control of the opening moments.  Konami brought some cool armwork, but we go to suplexes almost right away.  Pretty short match, I would’ve preferred if they got more time for what kind of match they were going for.  Konami taps out to a cool submission.  Pretty decent match.
    Mayu Iwatani vs Yoshiko (SEAdLINNNG)
    Akira Hokuto on commentary!  Yoshiko gives Mayu the bird before the match.  Clear roles to begin with, Mayu – the babyface technical wrestler, Yoshiko the power rudo.  Mayu’s tope was so fast, looked like she could’ve hurt herself.  Mayu sells the backbreaker like death.  The women definitely worked very hard, and the finishing stretch was very good.  Match of the card so far, almost great.
    World of Stardom Title: Utami Hayashishita (c) vs Saya Kamitani
    Clearly defined roles again, Utami the more powerful wrestler, Saya the flashy type.  Saya’s flashiness gets her controlled by Utami, and Utami starts hitting power move after power move.  Saya comes back with a dropkick and a huracanrana and hits a tope con hilo.  Saya pretty much had control afterwards and gets a springboard huracanranda for a 2.9.  Saya hits a Stardriver, but was slow to cover letting Utami get a kickout.  Phoenix splash misses, and Utami goes back on offense hitting a Torture Rack bomb for a two.  Black Tiger Bomb gets reversed into a huracanrana for a HUGE 2.9.  Two lariats and a Black Tiger Bomb later and Utami gets the dub.  Utami definitely made Saya look like a million bucks even though Saya probably shouldn’t be in a title match.  Very good match.  Bea Priestly calls out Utami afterwards.
    Hair vs Hair Wonder of Stardom Title: Giulia (c) vs Tam Nakano
    Here we go…grudge match for a long feud and a lucha de apuesta to up the ante!  Things get going pretty quickly, and Giulia hits a piledriver on the table!  Tam is definitely selling Giulia’s beatings and even after reversing a Glorious Driver to a reverse DDT, Tam still can’t get up.  Eventually she gains her strength, hits a plancha and a Tiger Suplex.  Tam can’t hit a second Tiger, but hits Giulia’s Glorious Driver instead.  Tam kicks the shit out of Giulia, but Giulia hits a backdrop driver.  Glorious Driver by Giulia for two.  Both women slap the shit out of each other, with Nakano selling being loopy and then slaps Giulia while Giulia has her hands tied behind her back.  Giulia returns the favor, the last one sounding real hard.  Nakano with two spin kicks then a Tam Screwdriver!!!!  Twilight Dream for the win and Nakano’s first white belt!!!!  Damn what a match!  Tam and Giulia deliver promos afterwards and Giulia sits in the chair to get her hair cut.  Nakano doesn’t want to cut Giulia’s hair, so Giulia gets one of the guys nearby to do it, but he doesn’t finish.  The two talk afterwards and Giulia shows Nakano respect.
     
    Great show, I would say this is a borderline 5-star show, but I have to give it a 4 since the rumble match was awful and the longest match of the show.  Everything else is completely watchable, with every match except the tag being ranging from good to great, and a MOTY contender main event makes this a HIGH RECOMMENDATION. 4.5/5 show.
  2. Alex
    Stardom 10th Anniversary 2021.01.17
    Tokyo, Korauken Hall
    Watching the Samurai TV version.
    Future of Stardom: Saya Iida (c) vs Unagi Sayaka
    Huge cut into the match, pretty much the finishing sequence, after the introductions.  You would think Iida, with her power, would be able to get a good spinebuster, but nah.  Match was mediocre at best, no real flow whatsoever.
    Natsupoi vs Konami 
    Big cut into Konami controlling Natsupoi and then Natsupoi takes over with her flashy offense, and she is hitting things pretty clean.  Konami goes for two armbars and gets a cool a tarantula type armbar in the corner.  Konami goes for a kimura type thing and gets Manami Roll’d in return, but ends up getting a Rings of Saturn.  Konami didn’t want to let go of the hold and hits the ref and gets DQ’d.  This looked like it could have been really decent in full.
    High Speed Title: AZM (c) vs Kaori Yoneyama
    Nice quick sprint, lots of action packed in for sub 6 minutes.  The only thing I wasn’t really a fan of was that huracanrana thing that AZM did, it looked really awkward.  Seemed like some slight miscommunication during all those quick maneuvers during the final stretch (waiting on Yoneyama, also being a mile away from the high kick).  Overall, pretty fun.  Natsupoi challenges for the title afterwards.
    Tam Nakano vs Starlight Kid
    Match is JIPed and starts with Nakano controlling Kid with very basic offense and heeling.  Kid gets a nice plancha.  Girls have a forearm war which Nakano wins convincingly after a minute.  Both girls attempt tiger suplexes, but after a quick sequence, Kid hits the tiger for two.  Kid struggles to hit another one and Nakano hits a spin kick.  Nakano goes for another tiger suplex, which gets reversed and we get multiple reversals into pins, but Nakano hits two shining wizards (including to the back of the head) and gets the Tiger Suplex Hold with a sick bridge for the pin.  Pretty good match, probably could have had fewer pin reversals.
    Queen's Quest (Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani) vs Donna del Mondo (Himeka & Syuri) vs Oedo Tai (Bea Priestley & Saki Kashima) vs STARS (Mayu Iwatani & Ruaka)
    Match starts with a three-way, which thankfully ends quickly, once Priestley is in and the ring gets cleared.  Then Iwatani is the only girl left and she is posing and smiling to the crowd.  Mayu hits a plancha to all the girls on the outside.  STARS get eliminated first after Iwatani gets launched off the top rope. Oedo Tai gets eliminated shortly after a dragon sleeper.  Watanabe hits a shitload of strikes on Syuri and hits a release tiger suplex.  Kamitami has to fend off Donna del Mondo for a lot of the final fall, until Donna fuck up and Watanabe gets involved.  Kamitami hits the Star Crusher for the win.  This match didn’t work for me, felt like filler match.  Somehow how too much going on and too little going on in the same match.  
    Wonder of Stardom No Rules Match: Giulia (c) vs Natsuko Tora
    Worked sort of like a Dump vs technico match.  Lots of use of weapons, some contrived use of chairs, and having the technico use their technical ability to outlast the monster and her team, Oedo Tai.  Tora is a much better technical wrestler than Dump, but doesn’t really have the charisma or presence of her though.  When the match was purely technical it was decent.  Oedo Tai interferes big time and Tora does a splash through a table, which Giulia practically no sells, that or there was a big cut.  Tora with blue mist to the eyes and a diving leg drop.  Ref almost counts Giulia down and her team, Donna del Mundo, bails her out.  Tora tries to use a chain again but it backfires and gets choked, Giulia struggles to get her finisher, but hits it to get the three.  Definitely not a great match, but it was ok.  Giulia does a promo quickly afters, and she looks pretty cool covered with the blue mist.
    World Of Stardom Title Match: Utami Hayashishita (c) vs Maika
    Maika grounds the champ early with some armwork.  She gets a Fujiwara, a standard armbar, and an armbar/triangle choke combo.  I like the struggle for Maika's superplex.  Maika's backdrop driver looked brutal.  Utami is able to make comebacks with lariats, goes for a Black Tiger Bomb, but Maika escapes to get the katahajime and Utami uses the ropes to slam Maika down.  Maika eats a huge bitchslap and a torture rack slam for a two count and then the Black Tiger Bomb for three.  Not bad, I liked how just about everything had some kind of struggle, nothing was easy, but this did meander when Maika was on offense.
     
    Overall, the show was decent, but there was nothing great to watch.  Matches of the night were the undercard matches of Konami/Natsupoi, Nakano/Kid, and AZM/Kaori.  Nothing was really bad either, so I can say this show is very mild recommendation.
  3. Alex

    AJW 1990 Yearbook Pt. 1

    By Alex,

    I know that AJW is definitely in a transition period with it being post-Crush Gals and not yet reaching the GOGOGO era.  The red belt has been vacant for over three months (holy crap) since Lioness Asuka retired.  Time to crown a new champion!
    First show - Tokyo Korauken Hall (1990.01.04) mixture of La Hora Retro and AJW TV
    Mima Shimoda (c) vs Kaoru Ito (AJW Junior Title Match)
    Pretty nothing match, good thing it's short.  
    Manami Toyota vs Suzuka Minami
    This wasn't on the OG telecast.  I didn't expect to see Toyota Pearl Harboring Minami coming, she doesn't even let the introductions or streamer collection finish.  Starts off really fast, with a bunch of brawling and whips into the barricades.  Minami eventually gains control and works on Toyota's leg and Toyota was selling it until, you know, she has to go on offense.  Nothing but aerial moves, thankfully doesn't botch anything but she was real close once.  Minami has the power offense and gets a flying crossbody.  She gets a backslide pin reversed and then we go home.  Minami gets a flying elbow and misses another one and gets rolled up for the three.  Manami goes for a handshake and Minami is like nah bitch.  Weird roleplaying here and a crap finish.  OK TV match though, goes about 10 minutes.
    Madusa & Noriyo Tateno & Kaoru Maeda vs. Aja Kong & Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto
    Only have the OG version of this trios match.  We get a heel ref and Aja Kong beating the shit out of an announcer.  So much camera time on this announcer (and he leaves and comes back).  Grizzly gets away with everything.  Definitely more of a match to put over Jungle Jack than a good tag team match.
    Yumiko Hotta & Akira Hokuto vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita
    This was on the 1990's yearbook, and I've seen it before, it was a really good tag team match when I watched it then.  Loved that the match starts with a botch.  Dream Orca is very over with the school girls.  Pretty fast match and really puts over the Yamada and Hotta rivalry.  Hotta really sells the hell out of that sleeper from Yamada!  Hokuto makes Mita look like a scrub! I never thought I'd say it, but I love all the sleeper holds in this match!  Pretty good home stretch with Mita getting payback after Hokuto embarrassing her, but Dream Orca fuck up a double team move.  Hotta and Hokuto take control and Hokuto hits a diving dropkick for the three.  Mita is bleeding and selling that match hard.  
    Bull Nakano vs Mitsuko Nishiwaki (WWWA Title Match)
    And here we go, start of a new era.  Love how grimy and 80's Nakano's theme sounds.  Nishiwaki tries to get an advantage right away with a clothesline and gets dumped out immediately afterwards.  Nishiwaki gets back with a bloody face...and then we get the introductions lol.  They were going for a speed vs size/strength thing here, but Nishiwaki just doesn't really have any that much to offer.  She eventually gets to work over Bull's arm though and Bull does her best to sell.  Cool transition from armbar to sharpshooter.  In the home stretch, both girls get German suplexes and power bombs, but Nakano's was way more brutal looking.  Pretty short title match, felt strange that a vacant title match wasn't hyper competitive, but I don't think you could really do that considering how much better Nakano is.
     

    Next event: 1990.01.05 in Korauken Hall
    Yumiko Hotta vs Toshiyo Yamada 
    This match uses mostly kickboxing rules but they're also allowed to grapple.  I already AJW like to have this matches, but they usually had like Bat Yoshinaga or some person I don't care about doing them.  I have no idea why anyone would want to pay full price for this on VHS back in the day (it has one match on it!), hell, I didn't even like the idea of buying a DVD of this.  Even from the introduction of the event, you can tell these girls can't throw a punch, they shadowbox worse than Ronda Rousey.  The sleeper hold comes back here from the tag bout the previous day, but it doesn't look good with boxing gloves on.  Girls get super gassed play boxing, and it goes all 6x3 minute rounds to a decision.  Toshiyo gets the decision.  Ok, not watching this again, this didn't do it for me at all.
     

    Next event: 1990.02 (have no idea what the full date is, comes from Joshi Mix -  I am grateful for the Joshi Mix guy for archiving this stuff, but he adds in his wrestling photos in the ad-breaks, and they are creepy as hell, so fuck this guy at the same time.):
    Kyoko Inoue & Kaoru Maeda vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda
    I think this is the earliest pairing of LCO I have on tape, obviously they're not LCO yet, but this is kinda neat.  Kyoko Inoue doesn't have the face paint either.  Match starts off real fast, with Mita eating offense.  Mima Shimoda with some awful dropkicks.  I liked the part where Mita throws Maeda right at Inoue when Inoue is trying to help her teammate.  Shimoda and Maeda trade some near fall sunset lips.  Shimoda hits a badly executed sunset flip on Inoue for the 3.  Match didn't have a good flow until the ending stretch.  We get a few minutes out of 12:47.
    Akira Hokuto vs Bison Kimura
    Kimura slaps Hokuto during the introduction, and Hokuto slaps her back.  For some reason, Hokuto held out her hand as a sign of respect before the bell starts, Bison pulls a Ronda Rousey.  Man, Hokuto's half crab looks incredible for a while.  Bison gets a nice German with a bridge and starts rag dolling the shit out of Hokuto, followed by a tombstone.  Hokuto bridges out of everything and she is doing some good selling.  Every bridge looks like a complete struggle for her.  When it's time for Hokuto to comeback, she lands a huge slap to the face, dumps Bison out of the ring, and hits a great plancha.  Home stretch here, girls reverse a bunch of moves until Hokuto slips out of another backdrop and hits a tiger suplex for the win.  This was a pretty good TV match, definitely enjoyed it. We get about 10-11 minutes out of 16:57.
    Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Fire Jets 2/3 Falls
    I think this is earliest I have of Toyota and Yamada pairing also, so kinda neat show.  The Hotta/Yamada rivalry continues!  Toyota has two sections of selling in the first fall, first time she has her arm worked over, second time over her leg.  First exchange of Hotta and Yamada was so weak considering their rivalry, but eventually Hotta beating up Toyota throws her like a scrub into Yamada for the tag, and here we go, this is what I wanted, MORE FIRE.  Fire Jets quickly get the first fall after the tag.  Hotta and Yamada open up the second fall, Hotta with shit punches.  Yamada now the FIP for a while, taking a lot of offense.  Nishiwaki totally no-sells Toyota's interruption twice, which I thought was kinda funny.  Yamada eventually make a tag to Toyota, I think, Toyota never comes in.  Double missile dropkick to Hotta, and Yamada misses by a country mile.  Yamada still in this and gets a flash schoolboy pin after a reversal on Hotta for the second fall.  That felt really weak.  Yamada and Hotta open the third with a kicking contest.  Toyota with a hot tag in, hits a like 6 dropkicks on the Fire Jets.  Toyota tags out pretty soon after (!), Yamada gets a nice snap suplex on Nishiwaki.  Toyota comes back in, hits a bunch of moves on Nishiwaki and totally pulls a Sabu.  I should forward this to Maffew.  Small brawl on the outside.  Toyota gets controlled, Hotta throws her into Yamada to get the tag, Hotta throws Yamada into Nishiwaki.  This quickly goes to the ending stretch to the outside.  Hotta and Yamada kick each other outside, Yamada and Nishiwaki are brawling also, Nishiwaki barely beats Toyota into the ring to get the countout victory.  This wasn't bad, but I didn't think it was that good either.  Majority of the match is shown.
     
    1990 Ranking of Matches (so far):

    1.     Yumiko Hotta & Akira Hokuto vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita (1990.01.04)
    2.     Akira Hokuto vs Bison Kimura (1990.02)
    3.     Bull Nakano vs Mitsuko Nishiwaki (1990.01.04)
    4.     Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Fire Jets (1990.02)
    5.     Manami Toyota vs Suzuka Minami (1990.01.04)
    6.     Kyoko Inoue & Kaoru Maeda vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (1990.02)
    7.     Madusa & Noriyo Tateno & Kaoru Maeda vs. Aja Kong & Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto (1990.01.04)
    8.     Mima Shimoda  vs Kaoru Ito (1990.01.04)
    9.     Yumiko Hotta vs Toshiyo Yamada (1990.01.05)
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