donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaQ59REU1BE&t=678s This isn't up on WAVE Network yet, so I'll link it here until it is. I was excited to see Iroha make tape again to but she wasn't really anything special here, just a solid performance. Mizunami was great again here though, she should really be mentioned as one of the better workers going right now. She did a great job at selling her back after Iroha worked over it in the early going. Then she does a very nice job of working around it during her comeback. This match does lack the drama of the last two Mizunami title defenses which doesn't make this as engaging. Still the work here is really good even if it follows the current Japanese title match formula. ***3/4
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This is for Queen's Quest's Artists of Stardom Titles. This is yet another match in the line of smoothly worked QQ trios matches that have happened in the last few months. They control the match in the early going with some slick triple teams. The action is fairly quick throughout, even Mimura and AZM do a solid job working the finish. QQ cut off Mimura from the rest of her team and seemingly had the match won but Mimura gets surprise rollup on AZM to get the upset. ***1/2 -
Mayu certainly has the ability to work the top of the card but seems to lack a bit of maturity to truly carry herself as a main-eventer. Matsumoto is a freelancer who has been working somewhat regularly for Stardom for around five years now. They have had plenty of opportunities to use her in a major role with the company but haven't. Jungle, HZK, and Momo Watanabe have the potential to work the top of the card. There are several things you can criticize Stardom's booking for but they have done a good job in starting to build up their younger workers this year. Also, people don't realize since they've only been following Stardom for the last year or two, is that Io Shirai has been on top of the card for over four years now. That's almost as long as Nanae Takahashi and Yoshiko had with the company. So in a way, her leaving could benefit both the company and her own career. It provides opportunities for younger workers to move up the card while Io herself gets a bunch of fresh potential opponents.
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Honestly, I think Stardom is better off now with their top talent leaving rather than in 2012/13 when most of their young talent was leaving. I am baffled as to why they had Iwatani beat Hojo for the White Belt when they could have really boosted HZK by having her win. Especially if Mayu was just going to be the next challenger for Io anyway. Plus, it would have fit with their recent booking.
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They also signed Evie and Nixon Newell, who will probably report with Hojo with Io reporting later. I'd assume the would hold on to debut all of them in the women's tournament that they are taping in July and August. I don't know what they will do after that. If you count all of the women on the main roster, NXT, the trainees at the performance center and the ones they've just signed the WWE has around 40 women under contract for just in-ring performers. That's a lot to have when you consider that there are already a few women who can't get on TV now.
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[2017-04-12-Oz Academy] Hiroyo Matsumoto vs Kagetsu
donsem43 replied to aguakun's topic in April 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBcpCNo5J94 This was fantastic. I liked how Kagetsu used her quickness in the early going to avoid Hiroyo's strength. Hiroyo finally does get a hold of her and starts working over her back in an effort to slow her down and that made Kagetsu's big highspots come off as riskier later in the match. I wasn't that thrilled with the all the finishers that were kicked out of but they redeemed themselves at the very end with some simple back and forth till Hiroyo catches a charging Kagetsu with a nasty lariat and a backdrop driver. This might be the best singles match of Kagetsu's career, certainly better than her super disappointing match with Io Shirai in Stardom the month before. ****1/4 -
Even though both women have titles at this time, this is a non-title match. The opening to this has some really good matwork as Hojo goes all shootstyle to try and counter Storm's British style. Things take a different turn in the middle of the match when Storm goes after Hojo with her butt attacks so Hojo decides to start working over her butt. This isn't a comedy spot, Hojo legitimately works over Storm's butt like it's her arm or back. It's weird. Still, if you get past that awkwardness, the rest of the match is really well worked. The nearfalls leading up to the draw are well worked but at fifteen minutes it is a bit short. ***1/2
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Kairi Hojo's last match in Stardom will be May 28.
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This is a second round match of the Cinderella tournament. Another strong showing for HZK. Her offense isn't flashy but she's getting smarter at knowing how to use it and her heel persona effective. Hojo gives her a lot here as HZK controls most of the match and Hojo has to earn all of her comebacks. Even the draw finish makes HZK look good as she gets a bit to cocky leading her to hit finisher too late but still could have finished off Hojo. Another strong short match from this show. ***1/2
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HZK will be in that mix too. I assume Hiroyo Matsumoto will be in a similar role to the one that she's had for the last couple of months, although there is a slight chance she might be brought in for the WWE woman's tournament since she had a tryout in 2014 and Sara Del Ray knows her from Shimmer. I also expect them to start looking for another foreign face for the company, but again the WWE might limit their options till the end of the year. If Storm is just signing with WWEUK she still might be able to work for Stardom depending on what kind of taping schedule the WWE decides to go with. It won't be nearly as often as she does now though.
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I'm leaning toward Mayu staying because they seem to be running an angle teasing her joining Oedo Tai. Maybe she's trying to change her look before they give her a run on top. Watching the Cinderella tourney, I'm surprised that they didn't give any big wins to the younger girls. That would have been a great point to accelerate the pushes they are giving Jungle Kyona and HZK but they went the predictable route.
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Kairi Hojo made it official today that she is leaving Stardom. Apparently, Io Shirai still hasn't signed but the impression is that she will eventually.
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Considering that this match was getting the most buzz before this show, it's surprising how little talk there has been about it since it was a damn good match. Fun spot at the start as Io almost eliminates Hana while she was posing. After that, this is pretty much a seven-ish minute display on why Io is so great right now. Hana more than holds up her end, which was impressive given she hasn't even worked for a full year yet. A great short match. ***3/4
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This is the opener of Stardom's Cinderella Tournament, which is a one night, single elimination tournament. Each match, excluding the final, has a ten minute time limit and you can also win by throwing your opponent over the top rope. This was a really scrappy sprint as these two have started a spirited feud over the last few shows. They go right after each other from the start, including doing some nice nearfalls to get over the over the top rule. After that, it becomes a big rush of strike exchanges and bomb throwing. This definitely looks to be the rivalry to watch in the future for Stardom. ***3/4
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This match is for Storm's SWA title. I was really interested in seeing this as Negra has looked good this tour and this was a chance for her to have a long single's match, (unfortunately, she had to leave not long after this show so this was her last match for now.) She looked good here again, especially in the early going reacting/countering Storm's matwork. Also showed a lot of personality that got the fans into the match. Yet another quality performance from Toni Storm, which is a good sign if she is about to get a big push in Stardom. A below the radar match that everyone should watch. ***3/4
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Well, Shida worked the 4/29 WAVE show. The match was a six-man so maybe she was protected that way, still it's very worrisome that she would still be back that soon. The clip that was shown on Samurai of her getting knocked out didn't look that bad, but there will probably be a different angle when the show actually airs. Granted quite a few concussions are cause by hits that don't look like they would cause a head injury. Speaking of head injuries, I'm surprised that there wasn't much made of Kairi Hojo having to be helped to the back after her match on the 4/15 show. She got hit in the head with a gimmick chair but the chair didn't break right and it seemed to really jar her bad. She worked the show the next day and looked fine till Io Shirai did a boot scrape spot (don't know who thought that was a good idea), then she was holding her head again. Toni Storm won the Stardom Cinderella tournament beating Mayu Iwatani in the final. Storm will face Io Shirai for the World of Stardom title next month while Iwatani will take on Hojo for the Wonder of Stardom title. Note that Hojo is one defense short of tying the record of defenses of the White Belt and I'm sure Stardom wants to have each of the Three Daughters have a singles title record. Also, both Io and Hojo are on the tickets for the June Korakuen show but the July show just has all of the belts on it, no wrestlers. On top of that, there was talk after Mania that WWE was looking at Storm for WWEUK so it looks like it could be quite a while before the Stardom roster is settled.
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Given her experience in Ice Ribbon, it should come as no surprise that Fujimoto can have a good match with an inexperienced worker. Still, Kadokura looked pretty damn good here and shows that Chigusa Nagayo still can be a great trainer. While she doesn't do anything flashy, Kadokura is extremely good at taking advantage of any opportunities given to her plus is great at being the rookie looking to get the big upset. Can't wait to she how she does in the Catch the WAVE tourney. Tsukka is Tsukka here, just another great performance from one of the most underappreciated joshi talents. One of the better vet/rookie matches from this year. ***3/4
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Surprisingly, this match was built more around the budding Kyona/HZK rivalry than the two bigger names of Io and Hiroyo. In fact, the match seems to be an HZK showcase as she does most of the work for her team and comes off looking really good. Both her selling and offense were strong while she seems to have dropped a lot of the Yoshiko-lite stuff she was doing early on in her comeback. Kyona gave yet another quality title match performance. The only big knock that I have against the match was that while they tried some different, interesting spots they didn't come off as smoothly as they should have. Still, another very good title match featuring the younger talent in Stardom. ***3/4
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Looks like they moved it to the next SEAdLINNNG show.
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It was definitely different to seeing Hojo take things to the mat in the early going. The best thing about Konami being in Stardom is that she forces the big names to change things up a bit for the better with her matwork and submissions. Konami has quite a bit of success with her style in the early going but then gets baited into Hojo's game of striking and loses her advantage. She does eventually go after Hojo's right arm with the finish of the match being Hojo having to find an alternative offense or gut through the pain with her arm in order to defend her title. Very strong title match. ****
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Kairi Hojo has an awesome new Popeye shirt:
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[2017-03-26-Ice Ribbon] Arisa Nakajima vs Tsukasa Fujimoto
donsem43 replied to aguakun's topic in March 2017
This has a lot of one countering the other, because they are literally Best Friends, but also has the chippiness of a NHL playoff series. There are several nasty strikes to go along with all of the cheap shots and hair pulling. All of the big moves that are hit in this match have more impact because they come off as earned rather than just the two of them running through a sequence. You really bite on the nearfalls because of how hard the two of them have been going at one another. Really strong draw. **** -
This is a two out of three falls trios match that's designed to set up the OZ title match between Hiroyo and Kagetsu at the Korakuen show next month. I thought everyone in this match looked really good, even Katsu who has been a big disappointment since returning about a year ago. They kept the flow of the match going throughout more than likely because they didn't do the mandatory crowd brawling that happens in OZ Academy. Like the tag title match in January, this is another showcase of what OZ Academy should be. ****
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These two get in each others faces right at the start of the match and don't really let up the whole time. Anytime either one takes a moment to taut the other she would just rush over and clock the other. Even though this is only a ten minute match, they use the time effectively enough the during the closing moments as the crowd are buying the near falls at the end. Hopefully there will be a longer rematch in the future because these two had great chemistry together here. ***3/4
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Match Link Decided to rewatch this after seeing their recent Sendai Girls match and wow does it ever hold up. First off, it's great two see these two in front of a bigger crowd (Korakuen looks full) than usual and getting great reactions which makes them come off a legit stars. They don't mess around and go right at each other at the start. Meiko especially is going full bore laying in some really nasty shots. Hiroyo fires back with her own shots plus hits some big suplexes when she gets the opportunity to really knock Meiko for a loop. The match is short, just under twelve minutes, but they barely waste a second the entire way. The best match of Hiroyo's career so far and one that should be mentioned as one of Meiko's best too. ****1/2