donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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This match is fairly similar to Kodakura's previous match with Misaki Ohata. Yamashita spends most of the match working her over while Kodakura still manages to pick her spots to stay competitive. Yamashita seems to be on her way to a win but runs out of time. Still, this is another impressive performance for Kodakura. ***3/4
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So Io Shirai held a press conference today to announce that she is taking time off to treat neck problems and undergo medical exams, (in Pittsburgh?) Meltzer mentioned that this might have been originally scheduled to announce Io leaving Stardom. I wonder if Io had some initial medicals for the WWE that threw up some flags that they want Io to check out further, preferably by their doctors, before they sign her. An interesting situation to follow.
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Tessa has talent but the real question is if she will ever have the right mindset to take advantage of it. Fyi, Abbey Laith is the former Kimber Lee and Jazzy Gabert is former World of Stardom champ Alpha Female.
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On paper, this looked like one of the best matchups for the block stage of this year's Catch the WAVE tourney and they did not disappoint. Surprisingly, Ohata is able to match the physicality Yamashita with the help of a quick attack at the start. Yamashita manages to make some comebacks but Ohata keeps varying her offense which allows her to keep regaining control of the match. She eventually gets the win with her awesome Skyblue Suplex. ****
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NOAHs_Savior did a nice job making a beginner’s guide to current joshi wrestling. While it does nice work showing who's who to someone new, what it does best is point people towards other wrestlers that you should check out if you haven't ventured past the typical 'Stardom + Meiko Satomura matches' zone that most fans seem to stay in.
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The woman she's suppose to have a mask match with is Zeuxis, who was at a WWE tryout last fall. Sugehit was also Sarah Stock's last opponent in CMLL. According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, Serena Deeb is in talks to come out of retirement for this.
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This is kind of two matches for the price of one as it starts out with the listed matchup but after a double countout, Konami asks for everyone to switch partners which leads to Hojo/Io vs. Konami/HZK. In that sense, the match does have a house show main event feel but the work here is still of high quality. Even after the partner switch up, both teams still work really well together. Nice to see that the novelty of the match produced a couple of quality matchups. ***3/4
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Chihiro Hashimoto lost the Sendai Girls title again, this time to Hiroyo Matsumoto.
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This is quite the veteran vs. rookie match. The story is the typical fare but the work here is terrific. Kadokura doesn't do anything flashy but her selling and the timing of her comebacks here are amazing, especially for her experience level. Ohata is having an amazing, under the radar, year. She sells just enough to make you believe that Kadokura has a chance. Great stuff. ****
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FYI, Stardom World will post everything from the main event of Kairi Hojo's last show unedited, not just the Artists title match. Also, they announced Io vs. HZK at the next show so you have to wonder if Io will have an announcement at this show. The last WAVE show had a fair bit of news too. First, Rina Yamashita won this year's Catch the WAVE tourney beating Rin Kadokura in the semis then Misaki Ohata in the finals. She then challenged Nanae Takahashi to a match at WAVE's tenth anniversary show in August, which is a rematch of the awesome match in SEAdLINNNG last year. Sakura Hirota announced that she is returning from maternity leave at this show. Nagisa Nozaki is also making here return with WAVE.
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This is from the opening night of the Catch the WAVE tournament. Miyagi was very solid here. She worked a straight match, and while she kept things simple, show good intensity to keep things from getting dull. Ohata on the other hand was fantastic. She work with a really nasty attitude while hitting hard the whole way throughout. She also put over Miyagi offense in way that you always felt like she had a chance to win. A strong match to open up a tournament that didn't look like it would be anything special on paper. ***3/4
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Yeah, this is pretty much what you would expect out of this group. This match didn't quite have the intensity and wasn't as chippy as the JWP match from last year but still was really stiff and fast paced. The back and forth between Nanae and Tsukka were fantastic. Hopefully there will be a singles match between those two. I did think that Sareee looked rough in the main part of the match but redeemed herself during the finishing run as she and Nakajima have an absolutely brutal strike exchange. Very happy to see Best Friends back. **** -
This is for Io's World of Stardom title. I really liked the first half of this. They paced it so well and managed to work in a few good nearfalls too. The early matwork was great with Io using some shootstyle matwork to counter Storm's British style but then Toni mixes it further by working in some shootstyle of her own. The early second half of the match does drag but that's the only time that you feel that they are working towards a draw. The finishing run is interesting as they do something similar to Io's match with Shayna Baszler as the ref halts the match after Io gets KO'd by a nasty Storm piledriver. Unfortunately, Io does come back a little too soon which wasn't helped by Toni just sitting around seemingly waiting for Io to attack her. Even with the annoying flaws, this is a great match and probably would have been my joshi MOTY if they hadn't have happened. Still, yet another impressive showing for Io and the best performance from Storm in her career so far. ****
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This is for Hojo's Wonder of Stardom title. Wow, there are a lot of streamers thrown during the intros. Probably the most for a non-retirement match that I've seen in a while. The match itself gets off to a rough start, quite a few awkward moments along with a forced crowd brawl that they only do so that Hojo can do a diving elbow off the back entrance. Things get much better when they start doing more focused body part work with Iwatani getting her back worked over and Hojo with her arm. In fact, the finish is great with Mayu trying to hit her finisher with a bad back. A solid last big title match for Hojo in Stardom. ***1/2
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So Stardom announced today that Hojo's last show will actually be June 4. Also, Toni Storm will be back in late July. Also William Regal was at today's SEAdLINNNG show, (he's apparently been at every Korakuen show this week) and supposedly talked to both Arisa Nakajima and Sareee.
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This was really entertaining. A match that's worked at an all-out AJW style pace isn't the best fit for Shida and Syuri. For the most part, the action was smooth with some really nice sequences. Kaho looked great here. Her time in Mexico seems to have helped her develop more of an actual offense where as before she played the underdog who relied on counters and rollups. The finish was well done but could have benefited from them slowing down a bit in order for the finishers to have more of an effect. ***1/2
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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
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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.