donsem43

Sendai Girls has been absolutely fantastic all year. Every one of their shows that have made it online have been at least entertaining. The 2/10 Beauty Bear vs. DASH/Hiroyo tag and the 5/27 Meiko Satomura vs. Yuu matches have been the highest points.

Watched the Stardom doc this morning and while I think that it asks a lot of interesting questions, it does a weak job on following up on them. The strongest part was the wrestler profiles. Jungle Kyona comes off as someone who is too sane for wrestling, while Mayu Iwatani is exactly the type of nut you would expect to meet. You could probably do a whole doc on Kris Wolf herself but it would have been nice to see an example of the cultural distance/isolated feelings that she had. The Rossy interview is the biggest fumble to me. Why show that Stardom's audience is almost all older men then not ask the owner/promoter why he doesn't market his product to women/children? Does he think he can only make money from the male demo he currently targets? Are the boundaries set by an overly traditional Japanese society too much to overcome? Speaking of Japanese society, the doc mentions how wrestling is an escape from traditional roles of women in Japanese society and they decide to illustrate that by... going to an concert put on by an all-women rock band. Um, what?!? Why not keep it tied to the subject matter? If you can't get good answers out of anyone in Stardom why not try to interview someone like Bull Nakano or Kaori Yoneyama, who have tonnes of experience and likely a different perspective. In the end, I can see this being informative to people who have never heard of joshi before but for a wrestling fan with just a passing knowledge of it, I don't see the doc shedding any new light on it.

It makes the office people in charge of stuff like this look incompetent?

There is probably a decent chance of this happening. I believe Shida is full time and moving to the U.S. so depending on whatever Aja's deal is effect the likelihood of what AEW will do with her. Although, I'm sure that they want to use Aja to establish the credibility of the women on the roster. I read that Riho is on kind of a tryout of a handful of matches but it's more her trying out AEW and living in the U.S. rather than the opposite. I imagine Emi Sakura is here just to have someone Riho is comfortable to work with and to help her decide if she should sign full time. Never read anything on Yuka Sakazaki's deal or if this is a one-off for Ryo Mizunami.

I wonder what kind of TV deal they are going to get in Canada. TSN aired the Kenny Omega doc but who knows how they would feel about airing wrestling regularly again after giving Raw the boot all those years ago. Granted, WWE is hooked up with Sportsnet and thing are pretty competitive between the two sports networks in this country so that might open the door. AEW could also sign a deal with TSN parent company Bell and have a regular time on another channel like MuchMusic then have an re-airing on TSN later in the week.

If Aja Kong works AEW TV in the fall, it will be 24 years since her last appearance on a U.S. promotions prime time TV. I don't think there is anyone else close to a stretch that long even if you include shows like the 6:05 show on TBS and Prime Time Wrestling.

Cool fun fact: Kofi's win came a day before the 45th anniversary of Hank Aaron passing Babe Ruth's total for career home runs.

This is a big match for Mika Iwata as she challenges the reigning OZ Academy champ, Hikaru Shida. Iwata has been over shadowed a bit by her classmate Chihiro Hashimoto when it comes to her potential because she has been pushed in a more traditional way rather than being a phenom right out of the gate. But that potential shines pretty bright here as she has a fantastic performance taking on a veteran star. Shida has a really stellar performance here to hitting just the right tone of being the establishing that she's better than Iwata but leaving enough openings to give Iwata hope and not come off as dominating. Just a terrific match. ****1/4

The Momo Watanabe/Jungle Kyona match from this weekend is getting a lot of hype but this match here is the real joshi MOTY. Chihiro Hashimoto/Mika Iwata vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto/Sareee - Sendai Girls 2/3/19

This is for Beauty Bear's (Hashimoto & Iwata) Sendai Girls tag titles. It's rare to see smash mouth wrestling in joshi but holy hell do these four ever pull it off. In the first couple of minutes, you have Iwata trying to lay in shots into Sareee with her reward being Sareee drilling her so hard in the face that she gets a bloody nose. The rest of the half hour is a awesome mix of smack talk and stiff shots. Absolutely fantastic stuff that is a must watch. ****1/2

This is Mayu Iwatani's first defense of the WOH title that she had won in her recent trip to the U.S. The early part of the match has Mayu trying to go with Konami on the mat with very little success. This error eventual allows Konami focus on Mayu's recently injured knee but Konami grows a bit too confident by trying some flashier moves. This allows Mayu to get back into the match although she is noticeably slowed by the hurt knee. The finishing stretch is a tremendous mix of Mayu's high-spots and Konami's submission. An impressive mix of styles on display here. ****1/4

Stardom uploaded Momo Watanabe vs. Jungle Kyona match from last June to their YouTube page. One of the best matches in the promotion last year.

This is for Kagetsu's world of Stardom title and is a battle of Oedo Tai members. I'll be honest, I went into this without any real expectations mainly because of not being a fan of Oedo Tai in general. The way that this match was laid out was incredibly well done. They started out with some intense exchanges in the ring that spills outside leading to some actually good brawling, which is exceedingly rare in joshi. After that, you have some fantastic back and forth producing some nasty looking exchanges. Things do get a little messy in the final few moments but it doesn't downgrade the match as a whole. Tremendous stuff. ****1/2

This is for Chihiro's Sendai Girls title. Since Saree works for DIANA, a group that barely puts out any footage of it's shows, any match of her's that end up getting uploaded feels like a treat. This ends up being extra special since I personally think this is the best match that I've ever seen her have. It helps that Chihiro has a return to form here, as I think she sleep-walked through the second half of last year. The main part of this match has a tremendous mix of hard hitting and matwork. The finishing stretch has a nice mix of bombs being thrown but there are a few moments of iffy selling to. Still just a tremendous match that is the first 'Must Watch' joshi match of the year. ****1/4

Good lord, Hazuki tries to turn Starlight Kid into road kill here. She is just super stiff with Kid throughout the entire match. Kid moved around the ring really well here but had some issues pulling off some of her bigger spots. Super fun match. ***3/4

So Rhea out, Kay Lee Ray, Jazzy Gabert, and Viper in? I wonder since Triple H keeps talking about NXT being a third brand do they specifically keep the ex-indie, big name guys in NXT and try to directly go after the same audience that AEW is likely to have.

I actually liked their SHIMMER 100 match a little bit more, a real high-end performance from Eagles there. The title match on Vol. 34 vs. Ayumi Kurihara (remember her) was, imo, the best women's match in the U.S. till the Horsewomen run in NXT.

Go watch this! Madison Eagles is the best wrestler you've never heard off, much less seen.

My top joshi matches for 2018. Still need to catch up on some WAVE and Ice Ribbon while waiting for the year-end shows to get uploaded: Io Shirai vs. Momo Watanabe - Stardom (5/23) Meiko Satomura vs. Io Shirai - Sendai Girls (4/19) Misaki Ohata vs. Mio Momono - WAVE (3/18) Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Misaki Ohata & Hiroyo Matsumoto - SEAdLINNNG (2/9) Misaki Ohata vs. Arisa Nakajima - WAVE (2/12) Risa Sera & Maya Yukihi vs. Kyuri & Maika Ozaki - Ice Ribbon (2/12) Kagetsu vs. Utami Hayashishita - Stardom (9/1) Momo Watanabe vs. Jungle Kyona - Stardom (6/17) Command Bolshoi vs. Arisa Nakajima - PURE J (8/11) Jungle Kyona vs. Utami Hayashishita - Stardom (9/9) Riho vs. Shoko Nakajima - Tokyo Joshi Pro (8/25) Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora vs. Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita - Stardom (11/23) Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Ayako Hamada - Sendai Girls (4/19) Io Shirai vs. Momo Watanabe - Stardom (2/18) Jungle Kyona vs. Konami - Stardom (8/26) Yoshiko & Rina Yamashita vs. Arisa Nakajima & Ayame Sasamura - SEAdLINNNG (9/5) Mayu Iwatani vs. Utami Hayashishita - Stardom (9/24) Arisa Nakajima vs. Rina Yamashita - SEAdLINNNG (10/3) Ayako Hamada vs. Mio Momono - WAVE (3/25) Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujinami vs. Ryo Mizunami & Akane Fujita - SEAdLINNNG (5/3) Io Shirai vs. Nicole Savoy - Stardom (2/4) Kagetsu vs. Konami - Stardom (8/18) Viper vs. Jungle Kyona - Stardom (4/1) Misaki Ohata vs. Rina Yamashita - WAVE (6/3) Misaki Ohata, Ryo Mizunami, & ASUKA vs. Rina Yamashita, Takumi Iroha, & Rin Kadokura - WAVE (6/17)

This is a battle between to J.A.N. (Jungle Assault Nation) teammates with Tora questioning her future in the unit. This story runs throughout this match with Tora looking to prove herself as someone who can hang with Jungle. Even when this match ends in a draw Tora doesn't seem like she's found any of the answers that she's looking for. An overall outstanding performance Tora in what is the best performance of her career so far. Jungle is amazing here to, which is something considering the year she is having. While it's not one of the best matches of the year, it's definitely one of my favourites. ****

Rhea Ripley/Deonna Purrazzo is a nice end cap to Rhea Ripley's early NXT UK run. Her matches vs. Dakota Kai, Toni Storm, and Isla Dawn were all worth watching, Hyped to watch her rematch with Toni at Takeover.

They could move Candace LaRae into the feud given her past issues with Baszler.

So do they add Kairi Sane to the Women's Title match because I don't see them doing heel vs. heel at a Takeover.

Another women in New Japan "debate"...

This is for Jungle's and Tora's Goddesses of Stardom tag titles. The main story throughout this match is the continuation of the Jungle/Utami feud. Every interaction between these two is fantastic. Natsuko Tora had possibly the best performance of her career in her first Korakuen Hall main event. Not crazy about the booking here but with that said this match could be the precursor to a run of very strong tag matches in 2019 for Stardom. ****1/4