donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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Nia Jax gets her second Takeover title shot after taking out Bayley then winning a number one contenders match. This match felt like you were watching Asuka wrestling a bear. She had success moving quick and setting up her attack, but once she moved in close Jax was able to use her size and strength to just maul her. While Asuka was able to get quite a few submission attempts, she was never really able to hold onto them for long. I did enjoy the finish when Asuka just starts hitting Jax in the head and Nia ends up putting too much stock into her Samoan heritage, thinking she can survive it but it ends up costing her in the end. ***3/4
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Bayley's first TV match since losing the NXT Women's Title to Asuka is a rematch from December. Nia Jax looked a lot better here than she did in that match. She looked much more confident in the ring and as a result, came off as a far more convincing monster. I really liked how she countered Bayley's various sleeper attempts by simply flinging Bayley off of her. Finish was interesting as they went with a freak knee injury leading to the finish even though Jax was in control for most of the match. Very strong performances from both women. ****
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This is Bito's return match after a 4 year absence. It was surprising to see just how competitive Bito was right from the start. She gets the early advantage on Hojo, staying threatening till the end. She did seem to run low on gas towards the end but the match layout covers for it by keeping the match moderately paced with high-impact strikes. Overall, a surprising strong return match and it will be interesting to see how Bito continues to develop during her return. ***1/2
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This is a big match for Mizunami as she is fresh off winning the Catch the WAVE tournament and lost to Takahashi earlier in the year. Meanwhile, Nanae has had a sneaky great year which has been lost in the noise surrounding Yoshiko's return. The early part of this match is interesting as Mizunami gets her arm worked over by Takahashi. When she tries to make her comebacks she has to switch up her offense a bit to not use the arm, but when she does break down and use it she sells the arm as still being in pain. Eventually the match turns into a slugfest and starts to go Mizunami's way. To counter, Nanae decides to try and bust out her big moves which allows her to pick up the win. Great, hard fought match. ****1/4
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This is another match between these two, instead this time it's for Satomura's Sendai Girls Title rather than the World of Stardom Title. I actually liked this match more than their December match. I thought the selling here was was better. The match did lack some of the drama that the last Stardom match had but overall it was a well put together title match. Another strong match at from two of the best in the world. ****1/4
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This is the final of a one night tournament to crown the first Stardom World Alliance champion. This starts off with some good back and forth matwork with Storm eventually taking over with some power offense. She does work a bit like Emma in that she doesn't do anything really flashy but everything hits well and looks good. One aspect of Io's work that doesn't get talked about is how deceptively simple her work, that's not something that you wouldn't associate with a joshi high-flyer. Overall, a really good main event. ***3/4
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Match Link This is a matchup that has been getting some build in Stardom for the last couple of months with this being the first singles match between these two. Hojo tries to get the early advantage by jumping Hiroyo during her entrance but eventually gets cut off. Kairi does do a great job fighting back after taking some big shots, including getting press slammed to the floor. Terrific work from Matsumoto to as she goes from being a dominate power wrestler early on to looking vulnerable taking Hojo's offense. This all leads to a great back and forth draw finish. Hopefully Stardom keeps this rivalry going as this was a great way to start it off. ****
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Separate But Equal?: The ultimate goal of Feminism in wrestling
donsem43 replied to Luchaundead's topic in Pro Wrestling
An article about joshi and it's mostly male fanbase. -
Basketball and hockey have never had major issues with PEDs. Although it has never seemed to be an important issue to athletes/media/fans in either sport.
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Stardom and Sendai Girls renew their rivalry with this tag main event. While Iwata sticks out as the obvious job girl here, I was really impressed with her. She does a great job of selling her beatdown while still managing to get her own shots in plus a few rollups for nearfalls. It's business as usual for the three. While it's not NJ/WAR, Stardom/Senjo still manages to capture that heated interpromotional rivalry that's been missing in Japan for awhile. ****
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This is the first title defense of the new Stardom World Alliance Championship. It was created during Stardom's tour of Europe back in May with the gimmick that it has to be defended between two wrestlers from different countries, in this case, Japan (Shirai) and Portugal (Shanna). I really like Shanna here. I've seen her a few times on the indys and she was always really solid, if unspectacular. She does have a couple of rough moments, but I liked how she picked up the intensity as the match went on. Io is basically what you would expect from Io Shirai at this point. With Stardom World you really get to see just how consistent she is from show to show. A solid, entertaining title match. ***3/4
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I believe she got some stage acting work or something like that. They announced that she was leaving for a while at the May Korakuen show but didn't say when she would be back. Stardom announce the lineup for their 5*GP tournament. Here's the poster for the finals with everyone on it: Looks like they are going back to the Stardom vs. World theme that they used earlier in the year.
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Stardom World is now off of YouTube and is now located here. They bumped the price up a bit but now there's no regional restrictions. The player is suppose to be the same as the one New Japan uses.
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This is booked like your standard OZ Academy match, which has a lot of brawling and interference. Still, these are two get the most out of this all things considered. In fact, Kato is really underrated as her matches usually have good selling and pacing. Mio Shirai works as a heel ref as she isn't clearly bias towards the heels throughout the match. Even though the overbooking weights the match down it's still an effective main event title match. ***1/2
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKg1SEuZZ2I&feature=youtu.be Match starts at 1:18:38 A great vets vs. rookies tag match. Avid Rival spend most of the match beating their younger opponents which allows them to show off their cool offense. The rookies due manage to work in enough comebacks to stay a realistic threat for the win, especially with Kobayashi making every rollup come off as a nearfall. They do go a little too long as they work a draw but Ohata and Mizunami end up killing Kobayashi a bit too much before the bell. Overall, a really strong tag match with everyone playing their roles well. ****
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Match Link This is one of Takahashi's first matches outside of Stardom/SEAdLINNNG in quite a while, so it is interesting to see her take on some new opponents. Unfortunately, the TV version of this match has about a third of it clipped, but what is shown is great. Ohata is not the flashiest worker that you will ever see, but she makes everything she hits look like it made an impact. Takahashi does have a couple of iffy moments with selling and transitions although she looks fantastic on offense. Hopefully WAVE's streaming service shows this in full because the clipping is the only thing that's keeping me from calling it a MOTYC. ****
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[2016-03-06-Sendai Girls] Meiko Satomura vs Syuri
donsem43 replied to donsem43's topic in March 2016
If you're looking for something similar to this then you will want to check out the matches that both women have had with Kana/Asuka. -
Hojo vs. Hiroyo singles match is happening at Kenta Kobashi's Fortune Dream show on June 14.
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WAVE can have some shows that are pretty loaded with talent. Their main problem is that the booking is aimless. There is no real storylines, and their titles don't mean anything. They usually book short matches that are worked in a fairly spotty style. I'm taking a wait a see approach with this because the first new show they put up has clipped matches, which is bullshit for a streaming service. I can understand older shows being clipped due to not saving the footage but taping a show knowing your going to be starting a service like this up and still clipping matches is just dumb.
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As per Stardom's English twitter account, Stardom World is making some changes in July: Apparently another joshi group, Pro Wrestling WAVE, is also setting up a streaming service soon.
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Nominating: Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani (Stardom 5/15)
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This is the title match that was setup after Iwatani won the Cinderella tourny a couple of weeks earlier. The match really comes off as a more cohesive version of the Io/Hojo match in January. Here, they do a much better job of mixing the heavy striking with the big moves. By the finish you really feel that Io won a war while Mayu managed to truly establish herself as a true rival in defeat. ****1/2
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This is the final to Stardom's Cinderella tournament, which is a one-night tourny where the matches have a 10 minute time-limit plus the option of winning via throwing your opponent over the top rope. This gets heated right off the bat as after Hiroyo gets knocked to the outside, Iwatani takes too long to follow up allowing Hiroyo to hurl a chair at her. She then quickly follows up by powerbombing her on the apron. The match turns into a bunch of bomb-throwing but they never forget to put over everything with their selling. I really wish that they hadn't gone with the battle royal style finish, even though it was well worked, since that was the only time that the teased that type of finish. ****
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This is a match for Stardom's six-women titles pitting Threedom (Io, Iwatani, Hojo) versus the Rookies (Watanabe, Kyona, Mimura.) The thing about this match that I liked the most was how the Rookies were able to earn their offense throughout the match. Usually in this type of setting, veteran(s) vs. rookies, they get their openings for offense through the arrogance of the vets. Even during the finish, it never feels like Threedom just flip the switch and put the Rookies away instantly. It comes off as them having earned their win. ***1/2
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Thread right here.