donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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In terms of just in-ring, I would put SEAdLINNNG and WAVE at the top. SEAdLINNNG is the better total package because of the booking and a lot of fresh matchups due to Nanae Takahashi and Yoshiko being in Stardom for so long. WAVE has had quite a few great matches since the middle of last year, but their booking is aimless and their belts don't mean much. WAVE Network has been off the radar which isn't surprising given that it's not as English friendly as Stardom World and a casual joshi fan wouldn't know some of the names. I think Stardom get dumped on a bit much because of the booking, but the main difference has been that the main events haven't delivered as regularly as they use to. It would help if they booked foreigners more consistently like the men's groups and if they felt more comfortable using freelancers in important roles but they don't seem to want to do that at this time. I've hyped Ice Ribbon before, but that was more for their potential than the current in-ring. If you checkout some of their shows from the past year, you're not going to be blown away with what you see. They do have a lot of interesting young talents. Especially Tsukushi who could have a breakout year this year, Risa Sera could have a strong run as ICEx Infinity champ, plus they always have the underrated Tsukasa Fujimoto to hold things together. I do think that Sendai Girls is a bit overrated. They main events are at least good if not better but I always feel underwhelmed by the rest of the card. Meiko Satomura is Meiko Satomura and both Chihiro Hashimoto and Mika Shirahime have the potential to be big stars, it's just that their show have their fair share of disappointing matches on them. JWP has a huge hole at the top with Arisa Nakajima leaving. They do have some solid veterans like Bolshoi, Leon and Hanako Nakamori but their young talent doesn't have anyone who has much potential. When big names left JWP in the past you could always point to at least couple of younger girls who could fill that role but there is no Hikari Fukuoka or Azumi Hyuga in this group. Honestly, OZ Academy gets more frustrating the more you think about them. On paper, they could possibly be the best joshi group because of the talent that they have. It's just that the way that the promotion is booked, not just in storylines and wins/losses but also in how the matches themselves are worked, makes them a challenge to watch on a regular basis. Just look at their last show, it looks like it could be really good on paper but if you've watched enough OZ Academy you get them feeling that it's just not going to be that good. That's sad because their are quite a few workers here that could have some great matches in the right environment.
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So in the post-match of Nanae vs. Arisa, Nakajima was made an offer to join SEAdLINNNG and she accepted. The scary thing is that there hasn't been any word of when or even if this was taped. There's a cameraman at ringside but I assume that he was with the Samurai TV highlight show. It would be incredibly disappointing if this doesn't show up. Watch the WAVE tag title match between Avid Rival vs. oedo-tai. Match was good but did go a bit long while having a few deadspots. When they pick up the pace the action is pretty good but it just wasn't very consistent.
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This is a fun six-man that main-evented this show. While Queen's Quest came out with their newly won Artist titles, they weren't on the line here. QQ take control in the early going over Kyona and do a good job of working her over. The match really picks up after Iwatani tags in as she has a couple of great exchanges with Io and Momo. They work in a couple of nice car-wreck spots before QQ cut off Kyona and finish her off for the win. ***1/2 -
This is Chihiro's second defense of the Sendai Girls title and also a rematch of one of her first big singles matches that happened a year to this day. I loved how Aja worked the early part of this match. She always seemed to have a smart little counter to everything that Chihiro would try. Story-wise, this match tells the vet/rookie matchup a lot better than Chihiro's title win over Meiko Satomura. You get the feeling that if this was prime Aja, she would have chewed up Chihiro and spit her out. But at the same time, when Chihiro goes on her big run, you can see Aja relying on her wits and experience to survive. A smart, well crafted match. ****1/4
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Thought Chihiro/Aja was fantastic! Aja in particular was tremendous, she had lots of smart little Fujiwara-like counters to what Chihiro was trying to do. I feel bad now because the last few months I was starting to wonder if Aja was maybe done as a worker but she proved me wrong here in this match.
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Yeah, that's a picture of Plum. In fact, both JWP and OZ Academy still have Plum memorial shows in August every year. To be honest, Kansai was probably one of the worst workers in joshi till she announce her retirement earlier this year. Then she became a lot more fun because you could see she was putting in a lot of effort into her work.
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Pretty eventful show Stardom show today. Io Shirai retained over Viper, which if the description was right, had a crazy looking finish. Then Shayna Baszler attacked Io post-match, who was then attacked by Viper. So that's probably the main event program for the next month. Meanwhile, Mayu Iwatani missed the show with the flu cancelling her High Speed title match with Momo Watanabe which was disappointing because that looked like it would be the best match on the show. Hopefully they can have that match in the next month or so.
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This is the main event of Stardom first show of the year with the new tag champs, Hojo and Bito, taking on Io and her Queen's Quest partner HZK. The QQ duo control the early going with some effective bullying tactics, managing to cut off the ring on both Hojo and Bito at separate times. HZK looked solid working as a heel and was fine holding her own during the finish although she should try to develop her own shtick rather than aping Yoshiko. Io and Hojo carry the the finish of the match. The two of them continue to have fantastic chemistry together. A high quality main event to start off the year for Stardom. ***3/4
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAivOpmbCRc&t=133s This is a semi-final of the tournament for the ICEx Infinity title that was vacated after these two went to a draw at their last match on 11/3. They work at a very quick pace right off the start and get a couple of really nice nearfalls off of rollups. Other than a short crowd brawling section that they seemed to only do to setup a dive, the match stays in the ring with a steady back and forth. In fact, you could almost look at the entire match as an extended finishing run. While this has its pluses and minuses, this two can work a pretty exciting finishing run which leads to a highly entertaining match. ***3/4
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On paper, this looks like your typical vets vs. youngster match, but the big difference is Yamashita and Yoshiko work like a Hokuto/Kandori type team. The story is that they are competitive when they work together but the dislike for one another keeps that from happening as much as it should. Both Ayako and Nanae are pretty nasty with their working over of their opponents. I've enjoyed the bitchy vet version of Ayako that showed up earlier in the year. There are some slow spots here since they work a half hour draw, but when the match is really going it's some fantastic stuff. ****
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This is a rematch of the February title match that these two had. These two had been a bit disappointing when working together when you consider that you had one of the best joshi workers of 2015 taking on one of the best women on the indies but I thought this was easily their best match together. Santana had her best performance in Stardom. Most notably, she did a great job of holding the match together when Hojo messed up a couple of spots. Other than the miscues, I thought Hojo was pretty good. I like how she mixed in submissions when Santana was getting the advantage in order to try and slow her down. The finish was well worked as Hojo was able to survive all of Santana's finishers in a reasonable way as to make her own comeback for the win seem realistic. ****
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aVWwt59rns This is a special challenge match as it is one of the last matches that Nakajima will have while she is part of the JWP roster as she is going freelance in the new year. I have to say that the matwork in this match is amazing. Bolshoi is quite at the level of Mariko Yoshida but she's good enough at times to make you actually think that she might be. There are several points throughout the match where Bolshoi just seems to be one step, sometimes two, ahead of Arisa. There are a few moments where Nakajima's only option is to simply slug her way out of trouble. Nakajima's selling also really puts over the matwork to give it some value later on in the match. A great showing from Bolshoi while Arisa keeps her late year run of tremendous work going. ****
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If I had more confidence in my writing I wouldn't use star ratings but I think some of my reviews read like I have a learning disability. So I use ratings to give the reader a half decent chance at understand how much I enjoyed the match.
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Just finished a very preliminary list of the best joshi matches of 2016 in spreadsheet form. This is before any rewatching and there are still a few more matches that I need to watch. I thought I should still put something out here for people who are making MOTY lists and are interested in checking out stuff but have no idea what to check out.
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I like the story that they are trying to tell with Io/Mayu. Their '15 GP match showed that Iwatani could be competitive with Io. The match last May firmly established that Iwatani is a true threat to Io on top. Now this last match showed that Io still has just enough to stay on top making fans wonder if Iwatani can make that one last push to finally take her down. Of course there is the question of will there be another match between these two. If Io is successful in her next title match she will have tied the record that she set in her first run of ten defenses. It will be interesting to see who Stardom goes with in January as a challenger. Do they go with Hojo again or a foreigner? Both Viper and Kay Lee Ray have already had shots so maybe they go with Shayna Baszler? I'm getting the feeling that they are going to have a foreigner win and use her as a transitional champ like they used Alpha Female in '13 to move the title from Nanae to Io. If they do that though, you run the risk of not having that one last Io/Mayu match should Io decide to leave to the WWE. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Fyi, Stardom World reuploaded the April and May Korakuen shows. The April show is the Cinderella tournament and the May show has the first Io/Mayu title match.
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This is the rematch of the close title match that these two had in May. The big difference here is that Io turned on her Thunder Rock partner Mayu and switched the competitive teacher/student rivalry into something more bitter. I really liked the approach that both took out of the gate. Iwatani tries to be the aggressor by trying to hit some big offense early. Io takes a more methodical approach, looking to try take Mayu down to grind on her in an effort to slow her down. Io's leg work was really good but unfortunately Iwatani was very selective on how she sold it. This does eventually turn into a bombfest, with Io always seeming to be either just smart or just tough enough to keep Iwatani from finishing her off. The finishing sequence was spectacular but I felt that some of the transitions during it were weak which lessen the effect of the moves being hit. Not quite the MOTYC that their May match was but still a great spectacle on its own. ****
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Some people are claiming that they offered a 50% discount on tickets to IR fan club members. Plus, they did have more outside help (Toyota, Nanae, Jun Kasai) than Stardom had. Although, Stardom ran as loaded a show as they could right now with their current roster and still drew under 1k. The 11/3 IR show had Tsukka/Tsukushi and Avid Rival/Azure title matches but only drew 285 to Shinkiba. You would think that lineup would at least be a sellout that smaller building. Beside the point, it looks like they featured the tournament matches above everything else. They did the right thing in getting their own stars out in front of a good crowd, irregardless of how they got that crowd. Ice Ribbon will be interesting to watch in 2017 for a variety of reasons.
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Oh wow, Ice Ribbon out drew Stardom at Korakuen. They also gave the matches in the ICEx Infinity title tournament a far amount of time so that should be a show to watch out for.
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Yoshida vs. Kyoko Kimura in IBUKI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqKFUsSH594
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This is a match from the block stage of WAVE's Catch the WAVE tournament that also builds off of the rivalry that the two have had in Ice Ribbon. This is quite the sprint. Also, it has a bit of a reverse on the vet/rookie dynamic in the early going, as it Yuuka who keeps hitting the big offense while Ohata is the one who has to keep going for rollups to survive. When Ohata does start getting her big moves in Yuuka doesn't have an answer for it, eventually getting the win with a unique tiger/pumphandle suplex for the win. A whirlwind of a match. ***3/4
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It was neat to see AKINO flashback to her Arsion roots here. Her matwork is still pretty good even though it isn't quite as crisp and quick as it use to be. Syuri looked pretty damn good here. Her strikes, matwork, and selling all looked terrific. I do wish they had kept up with the matwork throughout the match as towards the end it gets scaled down in favour of big moves. Still, this is a pretty good match and a nice change of pace for OZ Academy. ***1/2
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Hopefully sometime in the next week I'm going to try and put together a list of top joshi matches for 2016. Off the top of my head, I would say to check out the following: Meiko Satomura vs. Syuri (Sendai Girls 3/11) Nakajima/Fujimoto vs. Takahashi/Sakura (Ice Ribbon 5/4) Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani (Stardom 5/15) Nakajima/Fujimoto vs. Takahashi/Yoshiko (JWP 7/24) Nakajima vs. Yoshiko (SEAdLINNG 10/16) There's threads for each in the Match Discussion Archive with hopefully a working link to the match. If not try a certain well known Google Drive.
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This match takes place on the final night of the Block stage of the 5*GP. Iwatani was already eliminated but Storm still had a chance if she won but would need a tie-breaker in order to advance. The opening of the match is great as you have the contrast of Iwatani's quick pace and flashy offense verses the matwork and strikes of Storm. The match eventually builds to an exchange of strikes and big moves. The finish is a bit weird as Storm hits Iwatani with an Air Raid Crash but Iwatani instantly gets up and hits her dragon suplex only for both women to not be able to answer the 10 count afterwards. Even with that this is still an entertaining match and hopefully we get to see a more fleshed out version in a rematch in 2017.***1/2
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This is another first round match in WAVE's Next tournament. Natsu has been quite the surprise while watching WAVE the last few months. She was completely unremarkable as a rookie but ever since she came back from Mexico she has improved a lot. She seems to be turning into a modern Takako Inoue, not just in look and attitude but also in ring work. Meanwhile, Yamashita is her typical, straight forward, powerhouse self. Here she quickly establishes her strength advantage by turning a Natsu small package into a vertical suplex. Natsu does an admirable standing toe-to-toe with Yamashita in strikes but ultimately Yamashita is just too tough for her and she ends up being mowed down by a Yamashita lariat. Super entertaining, and a surprisingly hard hitting, match between two young potential stars of the future. ***3/4
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This is a first round match in WAVE's Next tournament to find a new number one contender for Yuu Yamagata's Regina di WAVE title. This match is super short, it goes less than three minutes, but they pack a ton of action into it. It's impressive that Iida manages to get two convincing near-finishes of an arm submission in that short time. Yoneyama spends the whole match going full speed, constantly trying for rollups till she actually manages to lock one in for the win. This match would have definitely fit in on a late 90's episode of WCW Worldwide.