donsem43
-
Posts
1070 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Everything posted by donsem43
-
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
-
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.)
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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. **** -
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
-
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
-
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
-
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. ****
-
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
-
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
-
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. ****
-
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
-
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
-
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. ****
-
It would have been understandable if these for to treat this match as a throw away. It's your basic "Let's make a tag match out of the top two singles matches on our next show." Arisa and Tsukka don't treat this match like that at all as they spend any time that they are in the ring together trying to rip out the other's soul with her bare hands. Yoshiko and Mizunami don't match that intensity early of the former Best Friends but they do slowly ramp it up throughout. The finish is basically the four of them pairing off so that they can random beat the heck out of each other. Unexpectedly great match. ****
-
I'm really enjoying how different joshi group are doing odes to early 90's AJW comm tape main-events. No one in particular has a stand out performance, what makes the match really work is just how well everybody works together with one another. Meiko and Chihiro continuing their feud was a highlight. This match also makes you wish that Stardom would get their head out of their butt and final book a Io/Hiroyo singles match. This is another match in the recent run of very good/great random main-eventer tag matches. ****
-
[2017-11-26-WAVE] Misaki Ohata vs Nagisa Nozaki
donsem43 replied to aguakun's topic in November 2017
WAVE doesn't get much right with their booking but they sure did a fantastic job the previous two months getting over Nozaki's sleeper as an instant finisher. They really hammer that point home in the early going of this match as Nozaki is constantly going for the hold that Ohata gets so desperate to counter it that she just straight up grabs Nozaki by the throat to get out of it. Nozaki smartly uses the threat of the sleeper to keep working Ohata over while she is off balance. Ohata's only option to counter is to go at Nozaki hard when she has any opportunity that she has, causing her to take more risks while still leaving herself open to be countered with the sleeper. Very strong match based on competing strategies. ****1/4 -
This is Maika's title shot that she earned after winning the four way elimination match at the last Korakuen show back in October. Like that four way, this was another strong performance for Maika. She gets early control of the match by using her power effective, catching Sera off guard since she almost always has a size advantage over her opponents. Sera had a very good performance here too as she has to change tactics and starts busting out some big moves in order to even the score. Even though the it's a bit on the short side, this is still a quality title match. ***3/4
-
This was the most notable matchup of the first round of the Young Ice tournament. Both of these women are part of the growing group of talented young workers on the Ice Ribbon roster. This match is a good example of where both of these are at this point of there careers. Nagasaki is a technical wrestler who has started to mix in some flashy highspots with more of an aggressive attitude. Nori DATE is the most promising of the Team DATE girls although she definitely has a couple of sloppy moments in each of her matches. Another nice look at the future of Ice Ribbon. ***1/2
-
All Japan wasn't conservative when Tenryu and company left to go start SWS, or when Jumbo got sick. Also, Stardom took a big risk putting the World of Stardom title on Kairi Hojo after the Act/Yoshiko incident and even Io's first title run was risky since they didn't really build her up before she got the belt. So it's not like they haven't taken risks before, in fact some of them have paid off pretty well for them. With Hojo/Sane and Bito gone now, Stardom needs new people in those spots. Pushing the likes of Kyona, HZK, and Watanabe is less risky than either of the two examples that I just gave so I don't understand why they haven't tried. I know Oedo Tai is over with the existing fanbase but the group doesn't have a good history of drawing when they are a main program. This goes all the way back to the days of Kyoko Kimura and a bunch of foreigners. I don't think you can really blame either Stardom or Toni Storm for how her title run has been booked. They were forced into it with Iwatani's injury and didn't have any way to deal with it in the short term. They should have a better idea of what to do now and they have some decent options whether they decided to keep the belt on her, give it back to Iwatani, or go in a different direction. For as much as people harp on Stardom's booking it's still better than the likes of WAVE and OZ Academy. Honestly, Sendai Girls booking is more worrisome than this. The only joshi groups with decent booking right now are Ice Ribbon, and Tokyo Joshi Pro. If you want to count it, that wrestling TV show with all the J-Pop idols had better booking than any joshi group in 2017.
-
Stardom has been too conservative in their booking since Io came back. Nobody got a big win in the 5*GP, QQ/OT feud has been monotonous, and it seems like the only reason Io is Wonder of Stardom champ is so there's a reason for her to have singles matches at the top of the card. Foreigners are booked predictably so that when they're bad it stands out even more. It doesn't help that they book too many girlfriends/daughters of people in the wrestling business. Io vs. Rachel Ellering is interesting but Ellering is very inconsistent so who know how that match will turn out. After watching more of her matches from Europe, Toni Storm is turning into more of a "get your shit in" type wrestler so I'm not really sure how good of a match she could have with Meiko at this point. They need to get more serious about moving Jungle Kyona, HZK, and Momo Watanabe into the main event mix. A strong return by Mayu Iwatani would help to. I watched the 1/4 Tokyo Joshi Pro show and thought it was interesting. Talent wise, I don't think they are too far off of Ice Ribbon if you took Tsukasa Fujimoto and the type of outsiders the usually bring in out of the equation. Saiki/Yamashita was good but it felt a bit too much like two young wrestlers doing a typical title match main event for a Japanese wrestling show rather than trying to make it into something that was there own. Still, both have a lot of potential and should be able to do much better down the road.
-
I'm amazed at how pretty much all of the buzz that Io Shirai had about six months ago has evapourated. There are some valid reasons for this, but still, the matches she had with Kagetsu and Yoko Bito in the last few months were as good as anything else that she had done in the first half of 2017. I didn't see any buzz about either of these matches online. The Bito match is particularly surprising since it was a Korakuen main event.