donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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This match looked like something that would be on Mid South/UWF TV in the mid-80's. Just two big wrestlers going right at each other in a hard, physical way. In her pre-match promo, Bito said that she had to avoid being crushed but unfortunately that's exactly what happens with Viper topping things off with a flip dive off the apron. Bito manages to survive though but she has to swing for the fences if she has any hope of winning. A nice book end to a solid tournament for Viper and a surprisingly strong one for Bito. ***3/4
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ASUKA's reward for her big win over Yumi Ohka at last month's anniversary show was a title shot at the current Regina Di WAVE champ, Yamashita. This was ASUKA's best performance yet as she really showed off her athleticism and mixed in some spectacular highspots. Her selling still needs some work though. This was yet another strong, big match performance Yamashita. She is pretty much at the point that she should be mentioned in the top tier of workers in joshi. A very strong title match from two women who keep improving. ****
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This is NEW-TRA's shot at the WAVE tag titles after winning the tag league earlier in the night. The real key to this match was NEW-TRA's ability to keep the Nagahama sections interesting as Nagahama is one of the most dull workers in joshi. The Kobayashi sections were excellent as she has managed to figure out how to be viable offensively while being in the ring with peers who have a distinct size advantage on her and not constantly rely on playing the underdog. Hopefully NEW-TRA have a decent run as tag champs since the women from Marvelous only make tape when they work in other groups. ***3/4 -
To be honest, this was the one match in the entire tournament that I had the least amount of interest in and I only checked it out after reading positive reviews. I wasn't disappointed though as this was a really strong match. Hana had another quality performance here. I especially liked how she stayed saucy after she wasn't going to get her easy win. Kagestu looked great again and is definitely one of, if not the, best performers in the entire tournament. Everyone should check this match out, even if you can't stand Oedo Tai. ***3/4
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This is a weird match. Ohata bringing down a rainbow coloured hula hoop with a bag of golf balls perfectly sums up the match. It seems so out of place for such a brutal street fight to mix in comedy spots the way that they do here. Ohata also does a pretty nasty blade job that ends up looking like she has put on zombie makeup for Halloween. The work itself is really good as they do a nice job of flowing towards each spot. Definitely not a match for everyone but an interesting one none the less. ***1/2
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These two had a very underrated match at the beginning of the year to kick off Kyona's run of title matches. Kyona uses her power to control the early going until Ray gets in some quick shots from unusual angles. The match turns into a nice back and forth between the two of them. They could have used more time to build up a better finish as it feels like Ray wins out of nowhere. Still one of the better matches of the tournament so far. ***3/4
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Given the history of NXT women call ups, your better off not being "ready."
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This was a fun tag main event for a B show. Hiroyo and Kuragaki make a good powerhouse team. Shida has some impressive power spots of her own along with her kendo stick for backup. I haven't been a fan of the changes that Yoshiko has made to her in-ring style, (being more of a fast paced, quick hit wrestler) but it worked well her in a tag setting. Good showing from everyone here. ***1/2
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This is my favourite match between these two so far. Ray's strikes were pretty good as she threw out some nasty forearms and overhand, slap style chops. She also had some nifty cutoffs to Io's comeback attempts. Io is finally able to get some momentum going after Ray's leg and teases the Texas Cloverleaf. The do a neat finish where Ray makes the fatal mistake of blocking an Io moonsault with her bad leg, which eventually leads to Ray taking too long to hit a swanton allowing Io to lock on the Cloverleaf for the win. Good stuff! ***3/4
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This was great until the finish. Konami's attack on Tam's leg was fantastic and Tam's selling of the leg was very good as well. That goes down the toilet at the finish as after being steamrolled almost the entire match, Tam gets the win out of nowhere with superkick/spinkick combo. What!? More bad booking in a tournament that has been full of it. ***1/2
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Everyone should make an effort to watch the Best Friends vs. Avid Rival series from August if they can. Just three terrific matches between two great teams. Honestly, Best Friends have strong an argument as anyone for being the best tag team in all of wrestling.
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This is the last match of their three match series with Avid Rival up one win and the other match being a draw. From a match structure standpoint this was better than their last match in SEAdLINNNG as they did a fantastic job of chaining all of their elaborate sequences into a match that didn't come off as a spotfest for one moment. The one noticeable issue in this match is that are times where some of their stuff takes too long to pull off. Not that the match was sloppy, but it just comes off feeling like your internet connection slows down the video when your watching. Still, this is a great bookend to this series which everyone should be checking out. ****
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I didn't have any real expectations for this because I was expecting a ton of interference because of the whole Oedo Tai/Queen's Quest feud. Fortunately, the two group cancelled each other out and this match ended up being pretty good. Kagetsu had a really nice performance mixing her heel tactics with some high flying and a few impressive power spots. Viper had one of her best performances in Stardom. She brought her typical squishy offense, (personally I don't get why some people think she works too light,) and did a solid job bumping and selling Kagetsu's offense in the early going. One of the top matches of the 5*GP so far. ***3/4
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[2017-08-26-Tokyo Joshi Pro] Miyu Yamashita vs Meiko Satomura
donsem43 replied to aguakun's topic in August 2017
The different dynamic of this match really carried it. Yamashita came into the match with a chip on her shoulder and didn't give a shit whether she earned Satomura's respect or not, she just wanted to win. It didn't come off as she earned anything in this match but rather just took it with force. As a result the match was a nice, competitive, short one. ***1/2 -
I didn't know what to expect here as these two had a very good draw last year but their title match in July was a dud. Surprisingly, Bito was a standout here. She worked at a near BattlArts level here, just drilling Iwatani with her strikes and stretching her out with her submission. It forced Iwatani to have to go big on offense to have a chance and she manages to steal the win with a reverse rana. Best match of the 5*GP after three nights. ***3/4
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This was good. Kyona had success working over Io's neck and back but couldn't hit any of her big moves in order to finish her because Io's survival instincts would save her in the end. It was the opposite for Io, as she was able to hit her big moves when she needed to but Kyona was able to kick out of them. As a result, Io had to resort to a deeper cut of her moveset, a Texas Cloverleaf, to put Kyona away. ***1/2
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This is the second match in these two teams three match series. Since this goes the full twenty minutes, this match is more moderately paced than their first match in this series. They still keep it fast enough that the action doesn't feel slowed down. I do wish they did a better structured finish leading to the draw. Still, one of the best joshi tags of the year as Best Friends keeps their hot run going. ****1/4
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This is a semi-final of the Ultra U-7 tournament. Iroha does a good job of controlling the early going with her matwork. Sareee does manage to get some momentum back when she is able to pick up the pace. Iroha keeps baiting her into strike exchange though, and while Sareee does hit hard, she doesn't hit as hard as Iroha. Iroha has looked fantastic in this tournament so far. ****
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[2017-08-20-Oz Academy] Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Hikaru Shida
donsem43 replied to aguakun's topic in August 2017
In a year that has had a chock full of great Hiroyo performances, this is the best one. Everything about her here was fantastic, great selling, smart transitions, and impressive power moves. Shida does a nice job mixing in her speed to keep Hiroyo off balance with her own surprising power and the odd cheap shot with her kendo stick. The finish was a battle of wills Hiroyo surviving Shida big moves before luring Shida into her own finishers. ****1/4 -
I really liked the SWA title match that these two had earlier this year so I was looking forward to this one. While being shorter than that match, this one is almost as good. They just cut straight to the heavy hitting and keep it up the whole way till Toni wins it with a nasty piledriver. I hope these two work together more in the future cause they have surprisingly good chemistry together. ***3/4
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It's amazing that for a twenty year old wrestler with just over a year of experience that Hana Kimura knows how to use her ring presence so well. She only does a few moves regularly (big boot, dropkick, and a standard vertical suplex) yet her matches rarely feel overly basic and bland. You would expect a broken down twenty year veteran to work like this not someone so young. Just a surprisingly very good match here. ***3/4
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I liked this a fair bit. The opening had the typical 'High Speed' style that you would expect from these two. The brawling leading up to the stairwell spot was actually half decent. Oedo Tai interference wasn't as goofy as it usually is. The finish ended up being a nice slugfest. A very good main event to one of the better top to bottom Stardom shows in a while. ***3/4
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This is an opening round match for SEAdLINNNG's Ultra U-7 tournament which mainly featured younger wrestlers. This was the best performance from Iroha since her World of Stardom title match versus Kairi Hojo a couple of years ago as she hits a lot of nasty looking, high impact offense. Kyuri has potential but usually has some rough patches in her matches. This might be the best performance of her career though as she survives Iroha's nasty shots and is able to chip away at her with some leg work. Pretty damn good ten minute match. ***3/4
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This is an historic match because it's the first main event of a major joshi show to feature a transgender wrestler. The match itself was better than I expected it to be. Ohka has looked really good in tags this year but usually comes off as bland in singles matches. Here she looked good. Her offense is pretty basic but she used it effectively and hit some nasty shots. ASUKA looked good as well, even hitting some great, Manami Toyota level spots as highlights. They do go a bit long as the match loses some steam towards the finish. Given the historical context of the match they both give a quality performance. ***1/2
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I didn't really care for their match in SEAdLINNNG earlier this and they didn't get off to a great start here. Yamashita spends the opening of the match trying to do Yoshiko's spot on her. Then they do a bunch of goofy stuff on the floor. Things pick up after that as the match becomes what you would hope that a match between these two would become. Just great physical back forth leading to some well built near-falls at the finish. ***1/2