donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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This is the third match that this two have had this year. They split their two matches earlier this year in the Catch the WAVE tournament with Yamashita winning in the final over Ohata and subsequently taking the Regina di WAVE title from Ryo Mizunami, Ohata's tag partner in Avid Rival. The match starts out as a matchup of power versus technique. Ohata gets some early success by trapping Yamashita's right arm in various submissions which limits Yamashita's main offensive weapon. This force Yamashita to be more careful with how she uses her arm. She adjusts how she applies her sleeper by turning so that more of her body weight is on Ohata and she's more selective as to when she uses her lariats. Ohata does control a fair bit of match by having a lot of smart counters to Yamashita's attacks but in turn Yamashita always has the trump card of being able to hit the smaller Ohata really hard. Towards the finish though, Ohata starts to build to much momentum and hits too many of her big moves allowing her to put away Yamashita. Just an amazing match that managed to use simple story telling in an incredibly effective result. Easily the joshi match of the year, maybe even the last couple of decades. ****3/4
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Nice to see the Beginning Pro girls make tape since that doesn't happen very often these days. The both of them put in very plucky performance against the veteran team of Bolshoi and Leon. While they lack the experience and offensive fire power that their opponents have, both Anou and Maki do a terrific job of looking competitive. A high quality veteran/youngster tag title match that shouldn't be skipped. **** -
More NEW-TRA? Oh yeah! Bonus points here for the reuniting of Yamashita and Kobayashi, who had a fun youngster team in late '15/early '16. Kadokura looked great here again and should seriously get talked about more as one of the top youngsters in joshi. The real highlight here is the matchup of Yamashita and Iroha. The two of them show fantastic chemistry here and it's a shame that Yamashita loses the Regina di WAVE title in just a few days as a title match between the two of them could be something really special. As for this match, it goes a little too short to be great, as it feels like the match ends just as it's start to ramp up. Still worth checking out though. ***3/4
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Just finished watching Rina Yamashita vs. Misaki Ohata from WAVE's 10/9 show. This match isn't just the best match joshi match from this year, or the last few years, it's one of the best in post-peak AJW ('97 pre-exodus) era. I know WAVE Network is a terrible value for a wrestling streaming service but it's a real shame that people are missing out on the great year that Yamashita, Ohata, and Ryo Mizunami are having. All three should be in the discussion with Hiroyo Matsumoto for being joshi wrestler of the year.
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NEW-TRA showing up in Stardom is a much needed breath of fresh air, too bad they are not around for very long. Iroha looks awesome here, especially in the way she carries herself as she comes off as a big star from another company. Both Tora and Kadokura looked really good here. The big difference between the two of them is that Kadokura has more viable offense, so you can buy that she could possibly end a match on her own. A very good match between two teams of young talent in joshi. ***3/4
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This is for Bito's newly won Wonder of Stardom title. The match is also in the same building that Kyona won the tag titles earlier in the year with Hiroyo Matsumoto, so there's intrigue as to whether she can win her first singles' title here. Kyona controls the early going with her power but Bito manages to stay in the match with her kicks. With a longer build to the finish, this match might have been up there with Kyona's run of title matches from earlier in the year. Even so, this match ended up being the lone bright spot in a pair of really awful shows for Stardom. ***3/4
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[2017-09-24-Sendai Girls] Chihiro Hashimoto vs Meiko Satomura
donsem43 replied to aguakun's topic in September 2017
This was one hell of a performance from Chihiro. She looked like a true champ here, keep her composure while Meiko was actively trying to show her up. The build to the super, nasty powerbomb on the floor was absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately, Satomura's selling got really spotty after that which took away a lot of the effect that the big moments of this match should have had. While those moments didn't kill the match for me it definitely kept this match from being a top joshi MOTYC that some have touted it as. ***1/2 -
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
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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. ****