donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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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. ****
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[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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Hard to believe that this is the first singles title match that Io has had in five months. I found the way that these two worked this match to be really interesting. Bito's whole approach to the match was to use some really grinding matwork in order to slow Io down so that she could hit her strikes and big moves. In return, Io has to tries to maximize any opportunity that she has to pick up the pace. There were a couple of rough spots during the finish, notable the two of them trying to pull off the old 'rana counter to the Die Hard Kansai, but nothing that really hurt the match. Overall, this was the second straight awesome Korakuen main event for Bito and it's as great as any of Io's other matches from earlier in the year. ****1/4
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One thing you can always rely on Sendai Girls for are tag matches that have an interesting mix of big names. Chihiro was the stand out here, primarily with her outstanding selling. A lot of it is the result of both Meiko and Aja really taking it to Chihiro in this match. Ayako is solid here but her performance gets kinda lost with the other three. A pretty good match, which is what you would expect from the talent involved. ***3/4
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I wish WAVE Network would post more OVER SUN matches because they few that they have posted have all been really good, if not great. Here they take on NEW-TRA who have been on a bit of a hot streak of their own lately. OVER SUN control the early going with their size and experience advantage but NEW-TRA eventually work their way back into the match with some nice counters and double-teams. The finish is some great back and forth, especially with Ohka dishing out some nasty big boots, including absolutely drilling Kadokura with one to get the win. Fantastic match. ****
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I always go back and forth on which joshi tag team is better, either Best Friends or Avid Rival. In this match, Avid Rival make a strong argument for themselves as they take what should have been a throw away mid-card tag match but turn it into something pretty damn good. Ayako has a quality performance here too and Haruhi put in a hard working effort similar to her title match with Mizunami back in March. Still, this is really all about Avid Rival and just another example how good of a team they are. ***3/4
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Natsu was awesome here. Her "perfect" dancing during the entrance, the camera hogging in the intros and during Hana's early match shtick. She's a great fit for Stardom, unabashedly what they are, "I like to show off for you Daddy." Fantastic stuff!
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Peak Nicopro here as the camera falls off the tripod during wrestler intros. This match is better than their title match from last year mainly due to the improvement of Chihiro has made. Cassandra has an awesome character but her control segments are boring and her overall ringwork is still clunky. Still Chihiro's performance carried this as she keeps getting better at adding drama to her to her big matches. A nice, solid, main event title match. ***1/2
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[2017-11-15-WAVE] Nagisa Nozaki vs Rina Yamashita
donsem43 replied to aguakun's topic in November 2017
Nozaki has been interesting to follow. She was really starting to get some momentum in SMASH before having to leave due to injuries and she has had a strong push since coming back to WAVE at their anniversary show. Nozaki looked very good here working a similar style to Hana Kimura. Yamashita tries to work her typical straight ahead power style but Nozaki smartly uses starts uses Yamashita's approach against her. The finish is a duel of sleeper holds till Nozaki steals pinfall by turning a sleeper attempt into a rollup. Nothing flashy, just good selling and smart work. ***3/4 -
FWIW, here are my current top 20 Joshi matches of the year. I'm still trying to catch up as I'm just starting November shows and some of the stuff from earlier in the year could use a rewatch. I'm hoping to be caught up by the time the big year end shows are up. Rina Yamashita vs. Misaki Ohata (WAVE 10/9) Ryo Mizunami vs. Hikaru Shida (WAVE 6/22) Io Shirai & Meiko Satomura vs. Mayu Iwatani & Chihiro Hashimoto (Stardom 3/9) Ryo Mizunami vs. Misaki Ohata (WAVE 2/11) Tsukasa Fujimoto & Arisa Nakajima vs. Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Miyagi (Ice Ribbon 7/17) Nanae Takahashi vs. Arisa Nakajima (SEAdLINNNG 1/26) Io Shirai vs. Shayna Baszler (Stardom 2/23) Kairi Hojo & Yoko Bito vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Jungle Kyona (Stardom 3/5) Rina Yamashita vs. Chihiro Hashimoto (WAVE 6/22) Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Kagetsu (OZ Academy 4/12) Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami (SEAdLINNNG 8/24) Ryo Mizunami vs. Rina Yamashita (WAVE 7/2) Yoko Bito vs. Takumi Iroha (Stardom 10/17) Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Aja Kong (Sendai Girls 1/9) Yoko Bito vs. Io Shirai (Stardom 11/19) Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Hikaru Shida (OZ Academy 8/20) Hikaru Shida & Syuri vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kagetsu (OZ Academy 1/25) Ryo Mizunami vs. Moeka Haruhi (WAVE 3/5) Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. AKINO (OZ Academy 7/16) Tsukasa Fujimoto & Arisa Nakajima vs. Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami (Ice Ribbon 8/27) Edit: Added Bito vs. Io from the 11/19 Stardom show.
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[2017-11-04-Stardom] Io Shirai & HZK vs AZM & Starlight Kid
donsem43 posted a topic in November 2017
Io and HZK have been the only team to consistently have watchable matches in this Stardom Tag League. Surprisingly though, this was their best match of the tournament against AZM and Kid. It's getting to be kinda of freaky to see how much better AZM is when she's in the ring with her QQ teammates as opposed to being in there by herself. Even Starlight Kid looked solid, not the typical young who is just going to do a bunch of flippy stuff in a sloppy manner. A very fun match. ***3/4 -
This was one heck of a performance from HZK. She wasn't afraid to get in, and stay in, the face of Kagetsu from the beginning. Kagetsu also has another strong performance as she is fantastic a putting over HZK beating plus having to get creative to fight back. She actually has to resort to cheating to finally win which succeed in making HZK look strong in defeat. Hopefully there are more matches like this to help establish HZK at the top of the card for Stardom. ****
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This match is Ice Ribbon's roster in a nutshell. Fujita is a solid but unremarkable vet who is good at keeping things together. Kurumi is a supremely talented youngster whose on the verge of taking the next step to being a main eventer. Both Maika and Nori are both clearly talented youngsters who just need a few years to develop into more polished workers. The match was really well done from start to finish, especially the finishing run between Maika and Nori. That was a pleasant surprise because I thought that the match would go off the rails at that point but it actually got better. A great snapshot of what Ice Ribbon is now and especially what it could be in the future. ****
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This match came about after Oedo Tai win over Queen's Quest at the last Stardom Korakuen Hall show and is the main event of Kagetsu's self-produced show. This really felt like a touring champion taking on the local star type match. Io controls most of the match by working over Kagetsu's neck, forcing Kagetsu to go all in with big moves in order to stay in the match. They do a great job of ramping things up during the stretch run to provide an exciting finish. Easily Io's best match since her return in August. ****
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Pro Wrestling EVE has posted the second show of their SHE-1 tournament for a limited time.
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This is Sareee's last match as a member of the SEAdLINNNG roster. You can tell how much she meant to the promotion by the fact that she comes out to no fanfare and jobs to a simple lariat from Yoshiko. Otherwise, this is a super fun joshi trios match. They keep up the pace of the match up the whole way with some nice double/triple teams included. The sequences between Sareee/Kobayashi and Mizunami/Yamashita were particularly impressive. ***3/4
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I'm starting to really enjoy La Rosa Negra. She was always improving during her runs in Stardom and consistently shows a lot of personality in the ring. Here, she's certainly capable of keeping up with Arisa in a long match. The match does get a bit flat at the finish because Rosa doesn't really get any good nearfalls so you have don't have any real belief that she is going to win in the end. This is still a good showing though and it's nice to see Arisa get to work a singles match again after spending the summer working tags. ***1/2
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Iroha has the outsider look down with her big Marvelous banner and her WAVE tag title belt. The weakest part of the match was the start where they made it a little too obvious that they were going to go the full thirty minutes. While the body part work in the early going was well done, it didn't really play a part in the match in the later going either. Still, as a whole match, I thought that this match had a better layout and pace than the Io Shirai/Toni Storm match from earlier in the year. Particularly the finishing stretch as they made it seem as though either was ripe to be finish off but question was could either one muster together enough strength to put the other away. While the match has a couple of nagging flaws the performances from each woman was enough to lift this match up to being one of the better ones this year. ****1/4
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Hey, remember when Stardom use to have really good tag/trios matches on their house shows. This was a flashback to more enjoyable times with this match. QQ cut off the ring on Kyona and do a good job with working her over. The best part of this match is how Kyona never really spends enough time out of the match to truly recover from the beating she took early on. She's able to hang in there for most of the match but QQ keep knocking Bito out of the picture eventually hitting a Bombs Away/Moonsault combo for the win. ***3/4