donsem43
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Everything posted by donsem43
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If Nikki didn't have a WWE deal and the 'Total Divas' show she would have retired.
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Thread for Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Kurumi for the ICE Infinity Title. Fun fact, this match happened a few weeks before Kurumi's 15th birthday. Plus she was working against someone who is more than twice her age, as Tsukasa was 31 at the time. Only in Ice Ribbon. Thread for Io Shirai vs. Kairi Hojo for the vacate World of Stardom Title, which ended up leading to quite the turnaround for Stardom in 2015.
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This is the final for the World of Stardom Title as it was vacated by Yoshiko after the incident with Act Yasukawa. Both had semi-final matches earlier in the night and are selling injuries from them with Steamboat-style tapejobs. Io controls the early part of the match by working over Hojo's arm after she gets a bit too aggressive and ends up spearing the post. Hojo does a really great job selling the arm throughout as she has a difficult time working over Io's back with various crab holds due to her not being able to keep a good grip due to the arm. Things kinda fall apart at the finish due to Hojo hurting her shin during the finish but the match still ends up being rather enjoyable. ***1/2
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This is a pretty fun title match between the young, but experienced, Kurumi and Ice Ribbon ace Fujimoto. Nothing really flashy with the work as they go with the typical ace vs young star storyline. Kurumi does stay competitive with nice mix of power and agility spots, sort of a more simplified Apollo Crews. The match does suffer early on with some weak transitions and selling but they manage to leave that behind with a pretty strong finishing run at the end. Not necessarily a "Must Watch" but more fun and interesting due to the age dynamic. ***1/2
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On Hyuga, I personally think she's debatably a top 5 woman of all time. Had a great run as the ace of JWP in the late 2000's. Her title matches with Yoneyama and the title loss to Haruyama are a couple of matches that are comparable to some of the best stuff that happened during the 80's and 90's. Tamura was inconsistent but when she was on she was one of my favourites to watch. Haruyama and Yoneyama have had some impressive performances, there just isn't enough readily available footage of them to make a firm decision of whether either one of them should be considered for the list.
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Thread for Kana and her protege Konami vs. Syuri and Hikaru Shida, a pair of Kana's rivals. FYI, if your having trouble finding my #2 match, Io vs. Koguma, it's now available at ClickWrestle. Although it's not the TV version but Stardom's own footage which is just one camera guy at ringside.
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Also really enjoyed this, really liked the dynamic of the two teams. BAMF not using any real flashy offense made the Alpha's stuff stand out more. Blake has found the right look with the man bun. Enjoyed the 3-Way up until the finish. Well laid out for the most part as there never really felt like there was any forced down time for anybody in the match. Thought the finish was bad. I don't know why Joe just didn't try to club Sami from behind then apply the crossface, or why did Corbin tease tapping when he would have looked tougher if they made it look like it took two guys to make him give up. WM weekend show looks fantastic, but the TV leading up to it looks great too. There's at least one match per show the has a chance to be pretty good.
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I'm just getting my feet wet with lucha but I find myself watching only singles matches. Casas has been amazing so far. Santo, Panther, LA Park and Ultimo Guerrero are others who will probably make my list. Wish I could watch WoS and PR for the list but I'm just not going to have the time to give anyone an honest look.
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If the YT/DM accounts that were full of late '00 joshi stuff were still around I would make a big push for Azumi Hyuga, plus take a better look at Yoshiko Tamura, Kayoko Haruyama, and Kaori Yoneyama. Hyuga will make my top 50 when I actually get around to nominating her. Chigusa is most likely in my top 10, with Jaguar also being a possibility. Devil will be in my top 25, Aja and Bull might make it in there too. Kansai and Kyoko will make my list but in the back half. Hokuto is a definite but I don't have any idea as to where. Toyota, Yoshida, Ozaki, Kandori, and Kana are all on the bubble.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FvBGEs91zE It's exceptionally rare that you see a match that is built around the performance of a rookie, but this match is centered around Kana trainee Konami. There is also the interesting dynamic of both Syuri and Shida being junior rivals of Kana in the past. The story of the match is Syuri and Shida focusing on Konami with one of the matches biggest strengths is the way they find interesting, reasonable ways to get Konami offense. Anytime she manages to get something in it's done in a logical fashion, not forced. Even when Kana gets tagged back in she gets in some offense but eventually falls to the 2-on-1 situation because she doesn't have any backup. Everyone in the match plays her own role very well leading to a great match. ****1/4
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Some great stuff coming out of the year-end joshi shows: Thread for Las Aventureras vs. Avid Rival for the WAVE Tag Titles. Thread for Tsukasa Fujimoto 1st defense of the REINA title vs. Maki Narumiya. Thread for Best Friends vs. Avid Rival for the Ice Ribbon Tag Titles, which is the last great match of 2015.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BfoWxfpOqQ&list=WL&index=119 Wow, these four just go right at each other for 14 minutes non-stop. After about a minute or so of a feel out period the match turns into a constant flow of cool double teams and nasty strike exchanges. Ohata and Mizunami are shockingly great despite this match only being the second match they have worked together as a team. This is also the first great match to come out of the awesome pairing of Nakajima and Fujimoto. Fantastic way to end 2015, and really looking forward to watching both of these teams in 2016. ****1/2 -
The start of this match is pretty great. Narumiya is in full idol mode before the bell by playing to the crowd, especially the men. This upsets Fujimoto, who tries to sneak a kick in but Maki avoids it and counters with her finisher for a nice near fall right off the bat. Narumiya then does a 180 into bitch mode tossing Tsukasa around all over the outside of the ring ending with a slam on the stage. While the match isn't very long they do manage to take advantage of the aggressive start with some good selling by both women, which allows them to have a finish that still has a satisfying build to it rather than a rushed one. Overall, a quick but very entertaining match. ****
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Thanks! I was pretty similar to you as I was big into joshi in the early '00 but lost interest after AJW and GAEA shut down but it was Paige in NXT that got me interested again. Then I checked out current joshi mainly out of curiosity as to what the scene had become and was pleasantly surprised with what I saw, especially from the younger workers. While it's not thriving like it was even in the early '00, there's still a lot of really talented women having great matches that deserve some attention.
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This is really well done tag title match featuring the new team of Ohata and Mizunami, who are two women that should have a higher profile in the joshi scene given their talent level. While this was a long match, it does manage to keep a pretty good back-and-forth pace for it's entire length. It plays out similar to wide-open basketball or hockey game wear the momentum of the match is swinging back and forth in a fairly regular pace but never delving into a clear "your turn/my turn" structure that it could have taken. Lots of nice double team sequences and counters from both sides. The length and pace does make it a bit draining to watch though, but if you stick with it the match stays very entertaining. ****
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No Io Shirai or Kairi Hojo? Meiko just looks like a token joshi pick.
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Threads for the battle of the Shirai Sisters, Ozaki/Hirota vs. Mission K4 tag title switch, and the main event from the 2nd Stardom U.S. show. Also reshuffled the list a bit after some rewatching. Also added some other matches that, while not list worthy,are still worth watching. Goal is to have this done by the end of this month and start on 2016.
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This is a surprisingly fun tag match. You would think that Ozaki/Hirota team would the typical 'partners who don't like each' but it's played more like Ozaki not trying to help Hirota and not wanting Hirota to help her, which actually ends up working in this match. Kagetsu and Kobayashi play a super fun youngster team who pull out some really nice double teams. I was impressed with Hirota because, while she has always been a solid worker, she still managed to work in her comedy spots pretty seamlessly into the match. The match was as helped by not being overrun with interference as anytime the match was about to get to that point it was balanced out by AKINO and Sonoko Kato. ***1/2
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An interesting singles match between to estranged sisters. They spent the early part of their careers together then Io had some legal trouble that apparently caused a split between her and the rest of her family, including Mio. I don't think they had been on the same card for three years. The match itself gets of to a tentative start as it seems like they can't agree on what to do which leads to some awkward stretches in the early going. Once they get on the same page though, the action picks up. A good back and forth mix of highspots from Io and nasty submissions from Mio plus really stiff strikes from both. ***3/4
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I actually liked this more than Brock/Sheamus from the night before. It's a paint-by-the-numbers "Southern" tag but everything was really smoothly done. Enjoyed Xavier being in the match rather than Kofi because it allow for some really nicely timed interference spots. Maybe it was this smooth because they've done the same match on a dozen other house shows but it all really came together here.
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This is the main event from the second Stardom show in California. It's also another addition to Thunder Rocks run of really good matches. Just like her team with Santana Garrett a few days later, Hiroyo shows some surprisingly quick chemistry with Skater right away. Hiroyo plays a very bullish power complemented by Skater's strike heavy offense. As usual with Thunder Rocks matches, they're really well paced and laid out. The match ends up working for both its length and number of near falls. ***3/4
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This gets off to a fast start as Benoit attacks Wright before he can get his jacket off by drilling him in the jaw with a forearm and stomping the back of his head. Benoit keeps the beatdown going even throwing Wright down to the floor to for Pillman to choke him with his shirt. Wright does get an impressive comeback with some really cool looking dives. Match goes a bit flat after that as Wright's offense while in control isn't that good. They also try to do a big counter sequence at the end that comes off a bit clunky. Still a very entertaining TV match.
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This is pretty much your standard modern WWE cage match. What does make it stand out is Randy Orton comes down to ringside and does an awesome job heeling it up. He is just constantly trash talking Hardy and telling Umaga what to do. He even ends up throwing chairs into cage. Orton's is really the only reason to watch this.