donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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Part of me wants to think that it was just a numbers game thing with Savoy. She's better than quite a few of the women who made it in, but several of those women were brought in to lose in the first round. She might be better off skipping this year assuming that the MYC is going to be an annual thing going forward. Granted, that's an optimistic view but didn't Dakota Kai have a tryout in 2014 and it took a while for her to get signed. Anyway, it's going to be extremely interesting to see how they book this. Who are the favourites? Io Shirai is the best in-ring worker under contract but would her winning be too samey after Kairi Sane winning last year? Does Toni Storm win because NXTUK is a legit thing now and they want to use this to kickstart building the woman's division around her? Or do they look at number of views that the highlight of Kavita Devi's match from last year got on YouTube and say"Screw it, let go!" giving her a Braun Strowman type push? They will most likely try to line up more high quality matches in the second and quarter-final rounds. Last year's tournament really lack those truly buzz-worthy matches that the CWC had. Probably will see something Io/Zeuxis, Meiko Satomura/Mia Yim, or Tegan Nox/Nicole Matthews. I do think we'll get a Toni/Meiko match with Toni winning because those two are going to have a singles match in September for EVE. Given typical political joshi booking, Meiko can get her win back there.
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Jordynne Grace not being in was a surprise for me. She seems to be doing everything they want from someone coming up from the indies. She travels, works against a variety of people, and is super consistent in ring. I can't see an obvious reason for them to pass on her. It's disappointing that neither Nicole Savoy or Shazza Mackenzie didn't make the cut. In cases like those, I wish ROH and Impact would be a more favourable option. I don't think anyone was upset when Viper and Kay Lee Ray signed with World of Sport.
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You guys missed counting Toni Storm.
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The blocks were announced for the Stardom 5* Grand Prix Red Block: ⚫︎Kagetsu ⚫︎Jungle Kyona ⚫︎Tam Nakano ⚫︎Konami ⚫︎Natsuko Tora ⚫︎Rachael Ellering ⚫︎Kimber Lee ⚫︎TBA Blue Block: ⚫︎Mayu Iwatani ⚫︎Saki Kashima ⚫︎Momo Watanabe ⚫︎Hazuki ⚫︎Natsu Sumire ⚫︎Kelly Klein ⚫︎Nicole Savoy ⚫︎Jamie Hayter Given that the final looks like it's going to be held in Nagoya, I would expect Jungle Kyona to make it out of the Red Block probably pushed by Kagetsu and Rachael Ellering. The Blue Block is more open. Sumire Natsu and Jamie Hayter are the only ones who don't seem to have much of a chance to win. It will be interesting to see what happens with the title match between Kagetsu and Mayu Iwatani on 8/12. Before that match was announce I thought that Iwatani would be the favourite to win.
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Cubs fan wrote up a nice little intro to Zeuxis here. She has always been someone I've should check out but never got around to. Same thing with Karen Q. Meanwhile, WWE took care of the obvious today by announcing Toni Storm is participating. People have dumped on Toni because of her World of Stardom reign but I feel she's had a great year. She was great in both of her short runs in Stardom and her wXw stuff has been really good as well.
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Four more names announced today. Zeuxis, Isla Dawn, Lacey Lane, and Karen Q.
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Four more names were announced yesterday. Both Mercedes Martinez and Mia Yim are returning this year. Martinez fit her role very well last year. Yim's two match were both really good and she's probably the most consistent woman on the indies. Kavita Devi is also back after an impressive debut last year. It will be interesting to see how she has developed since she has hardly worked any house shows since she signed. Killer Kelly from Portugal is the one newcomer from this group. She's been a regular in wXw for the last while and worked the last NXT UK taping. I've only seen her wXw women's title against Toni Storm and while she looked a bit rough she did look like she had some potential. Also, add Sienna and Britt Baker to the rumored list. Sienna announced that she has left Impact. Baker popped up as another new follow on Renee Young's Twitter account.
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I believe Tegan is suppose to be at the next NXT UK tapings to. They probably just decided to sit her for a bit as a precaution. I'm also guessing that Io isn't going to have a name change since they announced her as Io Shirai. It looks like Renee Young's Twitter account may have spilled a bunch of names after her account started following a bunch of non-contracted women. Two women who aren't listed in that article that are most likely locks are Taynara Conti and Xia Lee. Wouldn't be surprised if Jessamyn Duke or Shadia Bseiso made their debuts here too. Casey Michael from Squared Circle Sirens also noted the WWE was interested in Hiroyo Matsumoto.
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For me, if I go into any thread that I started and put my cursor over title a box pops up that says (Click and hold to edit.) If I do that, it turns the title into a text box to edit. I discovered it be accident but it works because I screwed up on a date and was able to fix it.
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Just put your mouse cursor over the title, then click and hold. You don't need to go into edit post.
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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