donsem43

You'll want to check out her match with Megumi Yabushita from the Arsion 5th Anniversary show. They establish early on that Yabushita has the advantage on the mat so that forces Yoshida to change up her typical strategy. With Bull also I do think that she was a bit of a victim of timing career wise because by the time that she was on top she all of the stars above her had left. So while she was in her prime she had work with opponents that were still developing as workers but still managed to do a great job with what she had to work with.

It might be because I watched a few of his matches back to back but his offense became monotonous at a point. It just becomes "Well what type of suplex is he going to do and how far is going to through him." He doesn't put much, if any, reason or build into what he's doing he just starts doing it cause it's Suplex City time. He's a good entertaining wrestler but this is what keeps me from seeing him as great.

The wrestling business is crazy and terrible, but it seems to me like all business is kind of crazy and terrible. This is true with pretty much any corporate structured company. After tonight, this whole thing is starting to look more like a Stalin-like political purge with Raw being the weekly show trial.

Match Link Really fun vets vs. rookies match. Neat dynamic with the rookies as Watanabe is 15 but has close to two years experience while Kyouna is 24 but just debuted last November. Momo isn't the flashiest or most charismatic worker but she shows enough pluckiness in her work to get the crowd behind her. Jungle has a nice power moveset and amazing ring presence for someone with such little experience. Thunder Rock do a terrific job of setting up the rookies as underdogs then putting them over just enough to make you think that they have a chance at winning. Fun touch at the finish as Io hits a Hojo-style elbow for the win to lead up to their upcoming title match. *** 3/4

One of my current personal favourites. Works a fairly traditional joshi style but adds a nasty level of violence. Might not have the enough high-end matches to make my list but decided to nominate her just in case.

To me, the kick to the head after the camel clutch is where it starts. Plum messes up a few spots after that and immediately puts her hands up to her head. I've seen enough Plum Mariko to know that she's not that good at selling so there's something wrong. That doesn't stop Hotta from going after her head repeatedly. If your wondering why El-P would constantly dump on her all the time it's because of performances like this. Now, she has had great matches but when you watch a large enough sampling of her it comes off as mainly having to have the proper motivation more than anything. Personally, that makes her kind of Inoki/Hogan like and neither of those two are anywhere close to my list. Also, I'm really like stiff work. I love BattlArts/Futen and Arisa Nakajima is one of my favourite current workers. Nakajima will absolutely drill people but not in a reckless, uncaring way that Hotta would. Just the way that Hotta does it just rubs me the wrong way.

Had Brock on the bubble for my list so I watched his more recent stuff and now he's off. Basically a more mobile, slightly better selling version of Taz during his ECW Title run. Really needs someone like Cena or Reigns to bump and sell for him to give his stuff any real contextual meaning.

Seen way too many sandbag performances from her to even think of considering her. Hotta's pretty much useless after '96. Plus unprofessional bullshit like the Plum Mariko match on the ThunderQueen undercard. Honestly, go and try to watch that match with current knowledge of head injurys and how Plum died, you won't make it through it.

Starting with this week's show (3/12/16) they are doing a two camera mix. Plus they have added English subtitles to the promos.

Match Link This is quite the rockin' tag match. It goes 20 minutes but the pace is really well done. Its pretty action packed but still lets the action breathe which you typically don't see in joshi tags. Everyone here turns in a really good performance which is promising for upcoming matches. ****

If you've watched some of their matches/shows before, enjoyed them and want to try to follow the promotion on a regular basis? Then yes it's worth it. If you haven't watch them before and want to try it as a sample then I would hold off for now. They have yet posted any of their more hyped stuff from the last year or so it's better to wait till those match are available.

That's another problem with 80's AJW is that a lot of it isn't dated properly, if at all. If you get a bunch of TV from a tape dealer you usually get something listed as early '84 or summer '85, hardly anything with clear dates on them. Even some of the stuff that aired on AJW Classics was dated wrong.

Well after spending the afternoon looking, there isn't much of anything for 80's AJW footage, which is frustrating since there was tonnes a couple of years ago but pretty much all of that has vanished. I don't know if anyone wants to judge someone like Jaguar on just three matches with Galactica, the Lioness match, and a couple of tags with Devil vs. the Crush Gals. The only big Chigusa singles matches are the Devil Masami All Pacific title match and the first Dump hair match, that's it. If people want the links I'll post them but it's really just feels like scraps, not anything you can honestly judge someone on, especially if you haven't seen them before.

The problem with uploading stuff now is that a lot her matches from her peak were on Samurai TV, and that stuff gets taken down pretty quick nowadays. Her peak was also during the time that people considered joshi to be "dead" so that's another hurdle to overcome. But to me, she's the best female worker of her generation and maybe the most underrated overall. She was able to convincingly play the role of ace despite looking like a waifish model. Excellent at selling, surprisingly good matwork, and violent strike-based offense. Her 12/9/07 match with Kaori Yoneyama is fantastic and is what got me to look further into recent joshi. The 4/29/08 title switch with Kayoko Haruyama might be the most sound joshi match in history in terms of selling and psychology. Her run in the late 00's in JWP is just terrific and something I prefer over other's like Meiko Satomura and even some of the big names from the previous two decades.

How do people here feel about Veoh links? I haven't had any major issues personally, but I've read some who have had big problems and felt like I should ask first. That's the only place that has AJW Classics stuff online at the moment. Anything on YouTube/Dailymotion is off of TV and is a least a little bit clipped.

Handheld clips of the NXT Holy Grail.

Chigusa is going to be top 10 maybe even top 5. Rey will be about the same. Do need to watch more face Martel though.

Yet another entertaining Thunder Rock tag match. I can't really say that they are the best team in the world right now but, to me, they are the most reliable because they always have at least a good match with everybody that they face. Here, they are up against two newcomers in Diemond and Viper. Diemond is really solid in-ring and plays the role of foreign heel well. Viper is fun as a big woman in the mold of a John Tenta or One Man Gang. I really like how she throws her weight into all of her offense which makes it extra squishy. Iwatani is great here, fearlessly eating her opponents offense and selling like crazy. Io is just puts in her usual great performance. A high quality main event. *** 3/4

So far there's two shows (2/12/16, 2/28/16) from this year, and looking at the schedule they are running about a show a week for the next couple of months. Neither of the two Korakuen Hall shows from this year are up though (1/17/16 with Io Shirai vs. Kairi Hojo, or 2/21/16 with Mayu Iwatani vs. Evie.) I'll put a link the Stardom section of the tumblr that I use for results/news.

A reminder that they just finished uploading this past weekend's show with the main event for the Artist of Stardom (Six-Woman) titles. Plus they have added the 9/4/15 and 9/5/15 shows. No "Big" shows yet but still 5 full shows in less than a week after launch is pretty good.

Sasuke is right there on the edge unless people love his recent wacky MPro stuff. Looking the other direction, Bockwinkel has to be the lowest ranked person with a chance at the top 10, maybe Fujinami. If not one of them it will probably be either Lawler or Casas

Azumi Hyuga/Tomoko Kuzumi: vs. Hiromi Yagi vs. Carlos Amano vs. Kaori Yoneyama Arisa Nakajima: vs. Hikaru Shida vs. Io Shirai with Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGMJOCOVPWQ The storyline for this match is your typical Japanese "Company Ace vs. Rising Young Star." The main thing about this match that I love is that while it's fairly similar to a Noah match at the time with a lot of big moves and bumps is that everything is given time to breathe. At around the midpoint of the match Yoneyama hits a senton to the floor and it's treated as a big momentum changing move. Hyuga sells it big, barely getting back in before being counted out and sells it in some form for the rest of the match. The finish involves a lot of nice teases and nearfalls. A true hidden gem from joshi's "dead" era. ****1/2

They uploaded the 11/23/15 show today. The main is Io Shirai vs. Santana Garrett with Io's Wonder of Stardom title vs. Santana's NWA Women's title with Iwatani vs. Yoneyama for the High Speed title as the semi-main. This only aired as clips on Samurai TV news shows. If anyone has questions on storylines or who's who feel free to ask. If your hesitant because it's joshi, I personally think current Stardom is the most accessible kind of joshi that I've see. Fairly rare that you get any Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue type stuff.

Just wait till Sombra shows up.