donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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So Kaitlyn was the first woman to be officially announced as an entrant of the second Mae Young Classic. Taping are going to be held on August 8th and 9th at Full Sail. It's already been reported that Meiko Satomura will be participating. I'd also expect that both Io Shirai and Deonna Purrazzo will be a part of this as they are both expected to report to the Performance Center on July 16th. I would also expect that pretty much any of the women that are under contract, but not at least semi-regulars on TV, to be in this as well. Should be the TV debuts for Tegan Nox (aka Nixon Newell) and Kacy Catanzaro (from American Ninja Warrior.)
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This is for Momo's Wonder of Stardom and I was pretty hyped to watch this because Purrazzo is one of the most consistently entertaining women on the indies. Purrazzo doesn't disappoint as she uses a bunch of fun ways to wreck Momo's arm. Momo's counter to this is to try and kick the crap out of Purrazzo. Even when Momo is in control, she was trying to find a way to get back on Momo's arm. This might have been something great if there weren't a few awkward moments due to lack of familiarity and some iffy arm selling from Momo. Even with that, this was still pretty good and well worth the time to check out. ***3/4
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This was the makeshift main-event for this show as both of the original participants, Delilah Doom and Shotzi Blackheart, both suffered injuries before the show leaving the Phoenix of RISE. All things considered, this match ended up being pretty good. The lead up to the first fall was the highpoint of the match as a brawl on the outside goes Martinez's way allowing her to hit a hanging DDT on the floor. Tessa just beats the count back in only to get hit with a Fisherman's Buster instantly by Martinez to take the first fall. Tessa does bounce back too quickly and her selling in general down the stretch isn't great. They do have a nice finishing run that has some good drama leading up to the finish. Worth checking out. ***1/2
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The main event of this show is an interpromotional match between New-Tra and the Actwres girlZ' team of Maki and Honma. Natsumi Maki looked really good. I haven't see her in a match the got a significant amount of time in a while so it's nice to see how much she has improved a fair bit. It's also good to see New-Tra have another quality performance after neither of their tag title performances in December were that good. A very good match between four up-and-coming young joshi workers. ***3/4 -
This is a rescheduled match from the Catch the WAVE tournament as Arisa suffered a concussion when this match was originally slated to happen. The match starts out exactly how you would expect a match between this two to go with Momono acting like a mosquito-level irritant while Arisa waves around trying to crush her. Eventually, Arisa is get enough shots in to finish off Momono but she puts up a good, entertaining fight on the way down. ***3/4
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The underrated aspect of Best Friend tags is how they are able to interweave two different feuds into the same match. This match continues the long running Tsukka vs. SEAdLINNNG rivalry, while working in the then budding Arisa/Pure J feud as well. Everyone looked great here. This was one of the better Yoshiko performances of the last while as she worked as more of a bruiser, which is what she does best. I'm not a fan of the flash finish here but the match as a whole is yet another example of Best Friends being one of the top teams in all of wrestling. ****
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This is Momo Watanabe's first defense of the Wonder of Stardom after her big breakthrough win last month. The biggest thing that I like about this match is that they kept focused on their strengths and didn't feel the need to have the typical Japanese wrestling title match. Primarily, they didn't over do it with too many big moves or nearfalls. Momo shows the same cold-blooded drive she did in her title win but also displaying a dangerous, strike at any moment potential. This is personified when, after Jungle gains the early advantage by working over Momo's leg, she erases that advantage by hitting a B-Driver on the floor. Jungle puts in yet another spirited challenge and shows a lot of resolve. This match feels like it's just the start in what will surely be a hell of a race to become the next Ace of Stardom. ****1/4
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This is the Muscle JK Strikers first defense of the Tokyo Princess Tag titles. Both Saiki and Mizuki looked great here. The match got off to a nice start then those two worked an awesome stretch in the middle of the match that ramped things up some more. Marika and Ito respond and pick things up as well. Neither of them are as developed as the other two but the combination of Ito's charisma and Marika's ability to hit really hard make up for it to a degree. All of this ends up producing the first actually great match in TJP this year. ****
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This is for NEO Biishiki-gun Princess Tag Titles and is another pretty good tag match from them. The match is worked differently than the other Biishiki-gun tags as it's quicker with a bit more back and forth. Marika Kobashi impressed here as she wasn't afraid to hit like a truck. Miyu and Saki-sama really laid into one another. In fact, I actually want to see these two have a title match together. Just good stuff all around. ***1/2
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This is for Yamashita's Princess Of Princess title. I've only been watching TJP for a short time but Kurone has quickly become my favourite. If you look past the cool zombie girl gimmick, she might just be the most fundamentally solid worker in the company while being a pretty good brawler too, which is a rarity in joshi. Miyu has a strong performance her to as she's able to use her power and striking to combat Kurone's brawling and other unorthodox tactics. The finishing stretch could have been longer to build some more drama but that's not so surprising give this isn't main-eventing a major show. Still, this is one of the best matches in TJP so far this year and well worth checking out. ***3/4
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This is a tie-breaker for top spot in Catch the WAVE tournament's Crazy Block and a subsequent spot in the tournament final. As a whole, this match does a pretty good job of maintaining a back-and-forth between these two throughout the match. Although, that does lead to some less than realistic transitions as one of them are force to quickly shake off a big shot in order to get back on offense. The match doesn't feel like a my turn/your turn type though, and it shows as the crowd gets into the drama during the finishing run. This might have been something special if they had structured it a little better but even as is it's highly entertaining. ***3/4
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This is the last match in the Crazy Block of the Catch the WAVE tournament. Both women came in tied on points so whoever won this match would move on to the final. Yamashita controls the most of the first half of the match with her power. Nozaki, though, chips away through some nice counters eventually locking in her sleeper to level the score. The finishing run starts out even but turns in favour of Yamashita when she locks in a sleeper of her own that Nozaki barely escapes. Yamashita tries to follow up with a Splash Mountain but Nozaki escapes leading to a draw which forces a tie-breaker. The match did a nice job of building up drama to the final few minutes. ***3/4
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This is one of the main events for Jinsei Shinzaki's 25th Anniversary show. It is also for the Sendai Girls title that was vacated by Ayako Hamada following her arrest back in May. The basic storyline of the match is a contrast in styles between the matwork/power moves of Chihiro and the brawling/highspots of DASH. The finishing run has DASH throwing everything at Chihiro till she runs out of big moves and then has to rely on hitting rollups for all kinds of angles. Eventually though, Chihiro's strength and resolve is too much and she regains the title. I didn't like this as much as their more frenetic match from the previous month but it's still a very solid title match. ***1/2
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This is Io Shirai's last match in Sendai Girls. She's teaming with DASH Chisako, who she had a tag team rivalry with (each woman teamed with their sister) early on in their careers. These Senjo/Stardom tags are almost always great and this is no exception. The first half of the match has some really good back and forth between both teams before focusing on Chihiro/DASH. I wish DASH had gotten in a few nearfalls during the finishing stretch to set up her and Chihiro's upcoming title match better. Still, great stuff despite the bit of a flat ending. ****
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This is Io Shirai's last match in Stardom before leaving to go to the WWE. This match is a bit hard to judge since while they work in some fun, lighthearted spots into the middle of the match that is mostly serious and competitive. When they are being serious no one lets up at all. Each one of them work really stiff. Io and Mayu do work in some old Thunder Rock spots in the finishing run. Overall, the match is a mixed bag but is still incredibly entertaining. ***3/4
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A nice touch here as they added Mio Shirai as the ref for this match after Io announced that she was leaving Stardom. This is pretty much a standard three way although they did there best to minimize the typical drawbacks that this type of match. All three of them worked really stiff, especially Meiko, and busted out a few neat, different spots. At the same time though, they don't try to take the match to a level that it would be something special. Just solid performances all around. ***1/2
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Io Shirai's last match is already up on Stardom World.
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Mandy Rose would disagree
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This was a special challenge match to setup the Apache sisters challenging for the Goddesses of Stardom titles at the end of the month. They come off looking really strong here as they show off a strong mix of lucha style spots with some real hard hitting strikes. HZK takes the brunt of the Apache's offense, including a couple of nasty figure four variations from Faby. They also work together to contain Io. Overall, just a great showcase for what the Apache's can do. ***3/4
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This is a prelude to the Io/Momo title match that would be happening a few days later. If your looking for a new "Kick the shit out of your opponent" tag team then you'll want to check out Momo and Konami. They put a beating on AZM to the point that AZM's screams start to get a bit unsettling and they are not afraid to take to Io either. In the end, the match actually ends up being fairly one sided as Io/AZM never really get any momentum in the match. Still a well worth a watch given the display that Momo/Konami put on. ***3/4
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This is for Toni's World of Stardom title. The pre-match for this is weird as both cut promo that are directed at English speaking critics rather than the match itself. The actual match does get off to a nice start as they do some quality matwork. Toni looked great here, especially in how she would mix in big moves in with her matwork. What her title run lacked in defenses it sure made up for in quality. Kagetsu's performance was a mixed bag, she was really spirited but her selling was lacking. Also, I really hope that every one of her title defenses doesn't have multiple ref bump/distraction spots in them. All in all, this was a very good title match. ***3/4
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A preview of New Japan women's division
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According to Tokyo Sports, Meiko Satomura will be in the Mae Young Classic. Sendai Girls' Twitter account tweeted out the story adding that they have no comment at this time.
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The Toni/Kagetsu title switch is up at Stardom world. The pre-match promos are weird as they are directed at English speaking critics more than hyping the match. As for the actual match itself, I thought it was pretty good. Toni in particular looked great. Kagetsu's selling was weak and I'm not really excited at the prospect of every title match having a ref bump in it like this one and the title match with Io last month.