donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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When Stardom announced the line-up for the 5*GP a lot of western joshi fans groused about the no-names, especially the foreign ones. The problem is that you don't know how good no-names are until you actually watch them. I didn't know anything about Courtney Stewart before she was announced but that didn't stop me from watching her great performance here. The match itself starts with some good heeling from Stewart as she attacks Hojo before the bell and steals her mask. After that they go about establishing Stewart's size advantage over Hojo while showing that Hojo can stay competitive with her strikes. To Stewart's credit, she lays in her shots and does her best to hang in there to take Hojo's brutal shots. She ends up costing herself the match as she's unable to focus her offense on either beating Hojo down or taking out her arm, which allows Hojo to just straight up mow her down at the finish. Really well worked, physical match. ****
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Stardom's 8/28 show, night three of the 5*GP, was a very good top to bottom show. Another good opener between Kris Wolf and Momo Watanabe. A standard squash by Toni Storm on Hiromi Mimura. Mimura is really good at using her size and inexperience to play the underdog. Kay Lee Ray/Blue Nikita had worked together before in Europe, so while their match was good it did come off as a standard touring match. Courtney Stewart really impressed in her match with Kairi Hojo. She must have seen the match as an opportunity to make a name for herself and she came through with a quality performance. Jungle Kyona/Io Shirai came to a dead stop in the middle of the match when Io banged her shin into a chair after doing a moonsault to the floor. They made up for it by ramping up the intensity and ended up doing some great work in the back half of the match. The main was a draw between Yoko Bito and Mayu Iwatani. Great selling by Iwatani really carried the match.
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This is Io Shirai's first match back from having surgery on her tailbone after her SWA title loss to Toni Storm last month. Io controls early on playing the arrogant veteran. Eventually, she leaves herself open allowing Watanabe to work over her lower back. Io's selling is good her as you believe that Momo always has a chance to take back the momentum due to Io's one soft spot. This allows for the finish to have some good back and forth with some good near falls for Watanabe before taking the loss. ***1/2
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Just finished watching night two of the 5*GP, which turned out to be a good show. The Jungle Kyona/Kris Wolf opener was a nice surprise with good performances from both. Also enjoyed Iwantani/Blue Nikita. I thought Nikita might struggle because she moves a bit slow but she kept up well enough and did some fun heeling throughout. The main event of Io Shirai/Momo Watanabe was the best match of the night and the tournament so far. According to Stardom's twitter account, Kairi Hojo suffered a concussion in her match with Io Shirai. She's sitting out tomorrow's show to get a doctor's evaluation and has already forfeited her match with Jungle Kyona. UPDATE: Doctor says Hojo is fine but still sat out today's show. A couple of upcoming matches to watch out for: Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Hikaru Shida & Syuri (OZ Academy, 9/11) Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Hiragi Kurumi & Tsukushi (Ice Ribbon, 9/19)
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This is a fun draw. I really like Ayako playing the angry vet, even though she's actually only a few years older than Tsukka. Both of them were pretty vicious with their strikes even though they worked the match in a standard, fast-paced, action style. I've been down on Ayako for about the last year but she's looked really good the last few matches that I've seen her in. Fujimoto continues to be one of, if not the, most underappreciated women in joshi. ***3/4
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That match is awesome although I can see some people having an issue with some of the sloppy moments in that match. Still the great way, way outweigh the bad in that match. Honestly, there are a lot of great tag teams in joshi right now. One of my personal favourites are Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata and Ryo Mizunami.) They've teamed regularly for almost year and have been pretty great together with the both of them having great years in general. I really liked the Nanae Takahashi/Yoshiko team. Kaho Kobayashi has developed into a great tag wrestler while having two regular teammates, (Kagetsu in OZ Academy and Rina Yamashita in WAVE.) It's too bad Sendai Sachiko retired because seeing the Jumonji Sisters go up against these teams would be awesome.
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Nominating Ayako Hamada & Yuu Yamagata vs. Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami (WAVE 8/7)
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This is a rematch from their December title match, plus previewing a likely Regina Di WAVE title match between Yamagata and Mizunami. I really liked how this match was laid out. Las Aventureras take the early advantage with the story of the match that Avid Rival have to try and fight their way back onto an even footing with the champs. This was the best performance that I've seen from the Hamada/Yamagata team, they did a great job of controlling the action but always giving the challengers enough chance to keep you interested in the match. Just a great match with a deserving title win for the underappreciated team of Ohata and Mizunami. ****1/4 Edit: It should be 8/7 in the topic. -
Match Link This is the main event of Nanae Takahashi's 20th anniversary show. The big strength of this match is the team dynamics that all 4 setup in the early part of the match. Takahashi and Yoshiko work well together as a team while Satomura and DASH are a contrast in strength and speed. They really ramp things up at the finish with a mix of hard strike exchanges and big finishing moves. Another great interpromotional main event, which has been happening a fair bit in joshi for the last year or so. ****
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Decided to start this thread since both Stardom and Pro Wrestling WAVE now have their own streaming services, plus the Real Hero google drive makes it easier to find shows from other groups. Just finished watching the opening night of the 5*GP. Thought it was a fine show, but nothing memorable. Storm/Bito, Hojo/Wolf, and Iwatani/KLR were all good yet would say that you have to rush out to see any of them. The only bad match was Blanchard/Watanabe, which was a mess. Courtney Stewart looked good having a short, solid match with Jungle Kyona. The show ended with promos from Kay Lee Ray, Toni Storm, and Io Shirai whom I assume they are teasing as being in the finals.
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Nominating Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Nanae Takahashi & Yoshiko (JWP 7/24)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra8NmNGxhMY Match starts at 1:57:50 This is a continuation of Nakajima's feud with SEAdLINNNG, specifically Nanae Takahashi. To be upfront about it, this is 25 minutes of pro wrestling nuclear warfare. The hatred between these two teams is palpable from start to finish. It isn't enough for one side to simply beat the other, they have to break them both mentally and physically. The work in the match carries a nasty edge the whole way through. The only real knock I have against the match is that there are a few messy moments in the middle that take away from it a bit. Overall, though, this match provides a unique experience. Like the Hojo/Satomura draw from last year, this is the one must-see joshi match of the year. ****1/2
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This is a battle of semi-regular tag partners and Chelsea's first title match. This actually starts out with some solid chain wrestling, which is something that you wouldn't expect from these two. Chelsea breaks out some neat offense and does a good job of trying to neutralize Hojo's elbow-based offense with armwork. Hojo is great at selling Chelsea's offense and making it seem like she is real threat till the end. A quality, main event title match. ***1/2
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This Storm's first defense of her newly won SWA title. This starts out with some fun British style exchanges. One thing I like about Storm is that she is subtle with her influences rather than parade around with them like some of her male peers. Shanna manages some success when she can pick up the pace but is never really able to maintain it. Solid, entertaining title match that is a good showcase for what Toni Storm can do. ***1/2
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This is just a make shift tag to preview a couple of matchups in the 5*GP. Even though that is the case, all 4 women go really hard here and have a really exciting match. It does pretty good job of previewing Iwatani/Bito, the two of them showed great chemistry here. Watanabe gives a spirited performance here. She takes a fair beating in the early going but makes a nice, fired up comeback at the end. Quite the quality match for something that could have been a throwaway. ***3/4
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Best performance of the night:
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This is a tag match set up to preview the next two singles title matches. This is the best performance from Storm so far as she has some really good exchanges with Shanna and does a great job of working over Hojo. Chelsea looked good getting beat down in the early going and hitting so nice offense down the stretch. Shanna had some neat sequences although her execution was a bit iffy at points. An entertaining match that had some fiery performances from everyone involved. ***3/4
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This is Hojo's first defense of the Wonder of Stardom title that she won back in May. This match is worked differently than Viper's match with Io Shirai for the Red Belt back in February. That match was more of a traditional title match, where as this one has a clear face/heel dynamic. Hojo's over-the-top personality help make the match as her body language really put over Viper's size and sell her offense. Very entertaining match with a great performance from Hojo. ***3/4
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This is a rematch of a fun draw that these two had back in June. This one end up a better match by being shorter with some smoother execution and better selling. I was really surprised by how good Chelsea's matwork was. Everything she tried ran together well plus she made sure to work the actual hold to make it worth something. Shanna looked better here mainly because she didn't try anything too elaborate leading to her being sloppy if not flat out blowing spots. One of the more surprisingly really good match that I've seen this year. ***1/2
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Pretty sure it's Ember Moon vs. Billie Kay.
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This is the main event for this house show setting up a rematch for the SWA title between Shirai and Storm. This match gets off to a slow start, although it did enjoy the matwork exchanges between Io and Toni. Once it gets going though, it turns into a nice mix of double teams, cutoffs, and saves. Was actually surprised that Kyona, for a rookie, was able to keep up with everything going on. Super fun main event. ***1/2
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This is a tag match building to the Wonder of Stardom title match between Hojo and Viper. Hojo was really good here, especially in emoting and bumping to put over Viper's size. This was the best that Chelsea's looked since coming back from injury. She's had some rough performances on this tour but solid hitting her stuff here. Leah Vaughan has good ring presence she just needs more experience to add some polish to her ring work. In the end, the highlight was the Hojo/Viper interaction that makes you look forward to their title match. ***1/2
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This is Bito first time tagging with either Io or Hojo since her return. This is a surprisingly competitive match considering that you have some of Stardom top girls on one side taking on the B-team of the companies heel group, Oedo Tai. Hojo especially, does a really great job of putting over the offense of their opponents to make you believe that they have a chance, even when none of them have any real big offense. Very entertaining in an unexpected way. ***1/2