donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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I feel like I'm stating the obvious here, but Best Friends vs. Seven Star Sisters from the 2/9 SEAdLINNNG show was awesome! Definitely must watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdW5vc6EqEM
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Different person. Finished watching the first night of Catch the WAVE and it was a good show as a whole. None of the matches were out of this world but ASUKA/Yamashita, Mizunami/Nozaki, and Ohata/Nagahama were all pretty good. Well worth going out of your way to watch. Ayako/Arisa was a disappointment, it had some really amazing moments but fell apart on the back end of the match. I've seen some praise for Shida/Momono but I've seen too many young, undersized, vet versus star veteran matches and this one didn't do anything to standout.
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I should know better than to go off of posters since they almost never have the official blocks. Anyway, here are the actual blocks: Crasy Block: Yumi Ohka, Ryo Mizunami, Rina Yamashita, ASUKA, Nagisa Nozaki, and Miyuki Takase Violence Block: Misaki Ohata, Hikaru Shida, Ayako Hamada, Arisa Nakajima, Hiroe Nagahama, and Mio Momono Catch the WAVE usually has two people from each block making it so I'm sure ASUKA is at least making the semis and is a smart pick to win. She has just as much experience as Yamashita when she won last year. The other block seems wide open. Typical political joshi booking would Arisa making the semis but, again, the other spots seems wide open. Ayako would make story line sense but WAVE never been that strong of a story line promotion. Ohata is also the first WAVE champ to be in the tournament in a while as well.
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This was billed as a dream match with the legend Satomura against the current World of Stardom champion Storm. I had muted expectations for this match since this wasn't a main event title match and neither of these two had really impressed me lately. With that said, I absolutely loved the first half of this match! It's just nothing but matwork. A hybrid of shoot style, UK style, and traditional pro style. I honestly could have watched them do just that for twenty minutes. Things aren't quite as good when they get in to *Big Moves* mode but the match doesn't lose that much. At least things didn't get egregious like they did in the Meiko/Ayako match from January. A great match that's done in a way that you wouldn't expect. ****
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This is a a rematch from the previous month's SEAdLINNNG show and is for Ohata's Regina di WAVE title. The tone for this match is the complete opposite from the one before. It's as intense and chippy as you would have expected from these two after watching the Best Friends/Avid Rival series last August. Just a back and forth fight the entire way. Very happy to see Arisa have a big title match because that has been her bread and butter throughout her career. Just an excellent match. ****1/2
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[2018-01-14-SEAdLINNNG] Arisa Nakajima vs Misaki Ohata
donsem43 replied to aguakun's topic in January 2018
This wasn't what you would expect after the BF/AR series last summer. This feels like a touring match between to U.S. indie stars that happens at a random wannabe super-indie. It's far from a bad match, the execution is pretty good and it's well built structurally. The issue is that it just completely lacks the emotional intensity that these two had built up before hand. Mainly worth checking out if you don't have WAVE Network because Ohata doesn't make tape much outside of there. ***1/2 -
[2018-02-18-Stardom] Io Shirai vs Momo Watanabe
donsem43 replied to Tenese Sarwieh's topic in February 2018
This is for Io's Wonder of Stardom title where she is challenged by one of her QQ teammates, Momo Watanabe. Before this match, one of Watanabe's main issues was her lack of big bombs on offense that would make you believe that she could take down one of the top players in Stardom. This ends up being the main theme of the match as she debuts a lot of different moves that could make up her signature offense in the future, starting off with a nasty tornado DDT that looks like it gave Io a nasty stinger in her neck. Another highlight for Momo was using an Asuka Lock to build up to her hitting a beautiful Tequila Sunrise suplex on Io for an amazing near-fall. The one thing that keeps this from being a MOTYC is similar to the thing with Io/Savoy from a couple of weeks earlier, Io's comeback is a little to sudden and easy. You really wish that Momo had gone down with more of a fight after such a strong performance. Still, a very strong match and hopefully a sign of things to come with Momo Watanabe. ****1/4 -
This match is for Io's Wonder of Stardom title as she takes on Shimmer champion Nicole Savoy. Savoy hasn't really stood out during this tour but she's not the type of worker that is going to shine in a tag as much as singles. She was fantastic here as she was finally able to show off what she could do in a high profile setting. Savoy's working over Io's arms was great as she would switch which arm she was working over whenever Io would get over defensive on one of them. In response, Io has to take more big risks earlier in the match in order to regain control then takes a shortcut of attacking Savoy's knee, removing her knee brace. I do wish that the finishing stretch was a bit longer as it seems like Io puts Savoy away a little too easily after a such a competitive match. Still, the match as a whole was great, especially as a showcase of what Nicole Savoy can do. ****1/4
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The lineup for this year's Catch the WAVE tournament looks awesome! One block has Arisa Nakajima in fresh, interesting matchups against ASUKA, Nagisa Nozaki, and Mio Momono. The other block has a phenomenal lineup of talent which includes rematches of my top two joshi matches from last year (Yamashita/Ohata and Mizunami/Shida.)
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Watched the two Ohata/Nakajima matches back to back. To put it simply, the WAVE title match is exactly the match you would expect these two to have while the SEAdLINNNG match is just completely void of that intensity. Go out of your way to watch the WAVE match if you can. Also, Io Shirai vs. Nicole Savoy was awesome. If your wondering what the hype about Savoy is all about this is the match to watch as she was amazing here. Io was Io here which was nice to see after a couple of disappointing matches versus Sumire Natsu and Rachel Ellering.
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I never knew about pop groups like AKB48 till a few months ago. Reading about them, and seeing the similar fan demographics, made it clear what Stardom is trying to do.
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Stardom announced that they are introduce a new title at there show called the Future of Stardom. To compete for the title you have to be under the age of 20 or have less than two years of experience. I've seen some people dump on this, but honestly, this title immediately has more purpose than either the Artists, High Speed, or SWA titles. Hell, the way they've booked the Wonder of Stardom title the last while has made the SWA title redundant already. The Future of Stardom gives them a title that can have a meaningful mid-card role that can help along their younger or less experienced wrestlers. Overall, I think it's clear that Tam Nakano is getting a big push and be positioned as the next Yuzupon. I would be really surprised if she didn't beat Io for the Wonder Stardom title and probably win either the Cinderella or 5* tournaments.
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It's always fun when Meiko and/or Hiroyo show up on a Fortune Dream show and here they bring a couple of youngsters along for the ride. They work a quick pace while everyone gets to show off what they can do. The finish felt a bit rushed but considering the amount of time and placement on the card it's not that unexpected. Quite the rockin' little match here. ****
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This is for Mary's High Speed title and is Starlight Kid's first title match. This was a super fun, and like Io/HZK later on the card, didn't follow the typical veteran versus youngster formula. This was more Mary using various lucha holds to slow and ware down the fast, high flying Kid. This was easily the best that Starlight Kid has looked so far. She was a spot machine but everything she did looked smooth. Well worth the time to go out of your way to watch. ***3/4
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This is the tag title switch that never ended up on WAVE Network for whatever reason. The match itself gets off to a rough start with Ohata no-selling a bunch of Ace Crushers from Miyazaki but one it gets going it turn into a damn good match. They keep a great pace with both teams pulling off some slick double team moves and sequences. The finish is particularly nasty as Miyazaki busts out a moonsault footstomp of all things to finish of Miyazaki. Not at the level of Avid Rival's stuff later in the year with Best Friend but still pretty enjoyable. ***3/4
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This was one heck of a sprint between four promising young workers. Both of the Beginning Pro girls looked really good. Anou has a simple moveset but she uses it in an incredibly effective manner making everything she does count. This was the first time I've really watched Honma and I was impressed how solid she was overall, especially in mixing shoot style submissions. Maika Ozaki looked great here, as she has in her last few matches. She's turned into cool power wrestler with an explosive moveset. A super fun ten minute match. ***3/4
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This is quite the matchup of veteran stars and junior partners. This might be my favourite Meiko performance of the year. She was really on, especially when she would slickly move from matwork to more high impact moves. Despite her age and slight weight gain, Ayako still moves around really well. Both of the younger workers came off strong, going back and forth with the vets fairly. A very fun match. ****
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This is Yoko Bito's swan song, which is a shame since I think the last four months have easily been the best run of her career. She looked really good matched up with Satomura and it's too bad that they couldn't have had a singles match in Sendai Girls in her last couple of months. Iroha was a standout here as she worked extremely well with both Storm and Satomura to the point that I'd love to see those two singles matches. A strong match and a nice way to cap off Bito's career. ***3/4
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This was the best match that these two have had all year. HZK had a strong performance showing a lot of pluck standing up to Io. I really liked how the match didn't rely on the typical 'vet gets over confident' transition and allowed HZK to find more competitive ways to get back on offense. Io's performance was a bit muted but that seemed intentional as to not outshine HZK. A solid, interesting match. ***3/4
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I was really excited to see this as these two are my most improved women of 2017, (well Iroha at least makes tape consistently now.) This opens up with some nice matwork which eventually leads to Chihiro getting a good grip on Iroha's leg to stretch it out. Iroha does a good job of selling while still using the leg on offense while Chihiro uses it as a shortcut to get back on offense. This might have been right up there as one of the top joshi matches of the year but the last minute was pretty sloppy. Even with that, this is still a great match. ****
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This is the final to a No. 1 contenders tournament for Misaki Ohata's Regina Di WAVE title. This was a very strong performance from Yumi Ohka. She had no problem matching the physicality of Mizunami and also capitalized on the work on the neck work that Nozaki had done in the semi-final earlier in the night. Ohka does about a hundred big boots in this but each one is measured and hits with such impact that it doesn't come off as a repetitive move. Actually really looking forward to watching Ohka vs. Ohata after this match. ***3/4
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This is a semi-final of a No. 1 contenders tournament and a rematch of an upset win that Nozaki got a couple of months ago. In that match, Nozaki won in less than 5 minutes when she locked her sleeper on Mizunami, causing her to pass out. Here, Nozaki feels like Jake Roberts when his DDT was over as an instant finish. Nozaki's sleeper looms over the match and forces Mizunami to try to be more aggressive in the early going. Anytime that Mizunami goes for a big move and either misses or gets countered Nozaki, almost always comes back with the sleeper. Very intriguing and well executed match. ***3/4
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This match felt like it was the antithesis to a lot of the modern wrestling matches that have over-choreographed, sterile action. Everything in this match had a nasty, bitter edge to it. It's rare the there isn't a sequence where there is a brutal or cheap shot that one takes at the other. At the same time, they keep the action going as there isn't really a stretch of the thirty minutes where they slow things down in order to stall to kill time. Another awesome match in the continuing, on-again/off-again relationship of Best Friends. ****