donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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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 -
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.
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Kagetsu beat Toni Storm to win the World of Stardom title. Not really a surprise given Toni's WWEUK contract is likely to limit the opportunities, if any, that Toni will have to work for Stardom in the future. This is also the fourth title change that Stardom has had in the last two and a half weeks.
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I've tend to rate Io's matches with younger, less experienced workers more than her higher profile ones. I prefer the Momo matches, along with the 6/1/14 Takumi Iroha and 2/22/15 Koguma matches, ahead of most of her matches with Mayu and Meiko. Wouldn't put any of Io's matches with Kairi Sane over those matches either.
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This was one hell of a way for Io to end a five year run on top for Stardom. The fact that she works the match like its a typical title defense in the early going sets up her demise later on. She makes the incorrect assumption that her typical offense will put Momo away once again except this time Momo is more than prepared. Not only does she survive some nasty shots from Io early on, during the finishing run Momo seems to know exactly what Io is going to do as she's able to avoid or counter it. On the flip side, since Momo doesn't quite have a defined set so Io doesn't quite now what to expect or when to expect it. Plus, Momo stays so aggressive on her she doesn't get the chance to take the time to figure it out. The finish plays off this perfect, Io thinks she has Momo's Tequila Sunrise suplex blocked but Momo kicks her arm into position to hit a Sky Blue suplex to put Io away. The student outwits the teacher in a terrific match. ****1/2
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Io/Momo from the 5/23 Stardom show was absolutely terrific. The match does it's job getting Momo over as a top threat and is one hell of a way to end Io's run as the top star of the company for the last five years. Top 5 match in the promotions history too.
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Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4
donsem43 replied to TravJ1979's topic in Pro Wrestling
I've been a joshi fan since the early 2000's and it just amazes me that while the names and places will change, the behavior of joshi fans always remains the same. -
Maybe she'll go blonde and go by the name of Aurora Rose.
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Has wrestling gone overboard with the various streaming services?
donsem43 replied to rzombie1988's topic in Pro Wrestling
That's really dumb on Shimmers part. They're already 2 years behind on shows. They should really work on getting volumes 80-100 out so you can actually know what's going on with the promotion. They will probably market it at first as a "Before they were Stars" type deal, as at the moment, more than half of the women on the main roster of the WWE have appeared in Shimmer. Depending on their release schedule, they could be catch up quickly but then the problem would be producing new content. Beside the Mania weekend show that they have done the last six years, Shimmer's taping schedule has traditionally held one taping in the spring (April-June) then a second in the fall (September-October) recording between 4 to 5 'Volumes' per taping. So unless they change that they will run into the problem of having to routinely provide content once they do catch up. -
Tokyo Sports is reporting that Io has signed with WWE. They said that her last show will be June 17. It's also reported that Toni Storm has signed a WWEUK contract.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R709wVwzcsE&t=24s This was the replacement main event for the show where Ayako Hamada vacated the Sendai Girls title. Personally, I think this was DASH's best performance since she started her hardcore gimmick a couple of years ago. Chihiro gives another strong main event performance. Despite this match being relatively short, they still manage to keep it action packed with a strong transitions to give it a nice flow throughout. ****