donsem43

Personally, I have been fairly underwhelmed by Miyu. Her performance in her last Korakuen title defense was particularly drab so it was nice to her best performance since the match with Meiko Satomura almost a year ago. While she is good technically from an execution standpoint, Yuu is weak at putting her moves together to make an interesting match but here Miyu was able to tie everything together superbly. She also brought some fire to counter Yuu's oatmeal personality. Very strong main event to a big show. ****

This is Utami Hayashishita debut match. Utami has a bit of fame in Japan because her dad is a reality TV star in Japan on a show that focuses on him and his large family. This is really, really, good for a debut match with Utami showing some tremendous ring presence. The match was laid out in such a way that she looked reasonably competitive with one of the top stars in the company. Jungle does a nice job on her end making Utami look strong although she doesn't really push Utami to the point of being in any danger of losing. Well worth checking out for the debut performance. ***3/4

I went into this match with no real expectations, more curious because Riho rarely makes tape in a singles match against a relative peer, but came away thinking that this was easily match of the night. Riho looked amazing here. She's not a flashy worker at all but she's so good at laying out a smart match and making everything matter. I've never been a Shoko fan but she put in the best performance that I've seen from her here. She was calm and under control which did wonders for her here as she didn't have her usual sloppy performance. Definitely a match worth taking the time to check out as it is a match that could get lost with the more talked about stuff on this card ****1/4

This is for Mayu and Saki's Goddesses of Stardom tag titles as they take on the new ass-kicking duo of Momo and Konami. Wow, do those two beat the ever-living crap out of Saki in the early going. Ever since she became a contracted wrestler with Stardom, Konami has just become a much more vicious wrestler and it's so fun to watch. Mayu had one of her best performances in a while as she got a good working over to from the challengers as well and put it over with strong selling even while she was on offense. The quick rollup finish here worked because during the finishing run Saki kept getting good counters on Momo which setup her getting the pin. Still, this seemed like a tease to the inevitable Momo/Konami tag title run which should be awesome. ****

Viper continues her strong run in Stardom this year. She brought a great mix of high impact offense with some quality bumping and selling. Kagetsu gave yet another predictably performance but it ended up working well enough here. Worth checking out for possibly Viper's best performance in Stardom. ***1/2

According to an interview she did with Yahoo Japan, she exchanged e-mails with WWE back in 2011 after the earthquake about coming in. She also said she would be interested in working with WWE more in the future, specifically stating a desire to work with Rhonda. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to bring her in for Evolution but Sendai Girls usually run a couple of big shows around that time of the year.

This was a solid first episode. The first two matches were fine. Rhea Ripley did a lot of good things but it seemed like she was trying too hard to play to the hard cam. Meiko/Kelly was very good. A great way to introduce Satomura to a sizable number of the audience that had never seen her before as she ran through all of her signature stuff. Killer Kelly looked strong in just being able to hang in there and trade. Lane/Kraven was fun. Lacey Lane looked rough but she did a bunch of different looking stuff and Vanessa Kraven did a nice job working as a base, bumping for here stuff while still coming off as a monster. Personally thought the commentary was bad. Between Cole's hard selling of Tegan Nox and Lacey Lane, Beth and Renee's constant shoehorning of "Did you know" type facts and weird talking points, they were interrupting each other so many times per match that I just tuned them out.

Mizuki really made this match with her performance. Nothing that she does is flashy, Mizuki is just very solid at everything technical but is easily the best woman in this promotion at drawing you in to her matches. Sakazaki wasn't bad here but her offense looked rough and that kept this from being something great. ***3/4

The storytelling here was really good. Not only did they get over that Kairi wasn't afraid of Shayna but she also had inventive ways to get out Shayna's submission, all of which played into the finish. I don't think the work was quite as good as their other two matches as the strikes weren't that crisp with Kairi in particular flailing around a bit. Still, this was a nice, compact title match that didn't over stay it's welcome. ***3/4

Big moment in joshi this weekend as ASUKA won the Regina di WAVE title becoming the first transgender to hold a title.

I kinda, sorta want Carmella to win just to see how long they are willing to go with this inexplicably long, Honky Tonk Man-style run.

Kairi's title reign is going to be interesting. The only heels for her to feud with are Bianca Belair and Lacey Evans while on the other end you have a similar type babyface with Candace LaRae and Dakota Kai. They could do a rematch with Shayna at Evolution but that would be tricky if she debuts as Rhonda's friend on the main roster. I guess start with a multi-woman match then try and build up someone who has some momentum coming out of the MYC.

That makes Jungle winning look more obvious but that probably the best decsion that Stardom could make. After losing to Kagetsu today, Mayu Iwatani's booking in this will be interesting. I wonder what the long term plan for her is, if there is any. A couple months ago, I thought they would use the 5*GP to reestablish her as the top star. Now, with her working the 8/8 Marvelous show, maybe she's thinking of going freelance.

I get pain in that area of my knee every once and a while and it hurts like hell. I don't even want to think about having a break happening there would feel like.

Given the biggest story of the night, good luck to anyone wanting to watch this spoiler-free.

So this will start airing weekly starting on September 5, no bulk drop like last year. There will be a Bracketology special on August 29.

I don't think so, but with the final being at Evolution I'd imagine that it would drop in early October.

It hasn't gotten anywhere near the level of hype than the Stardom match from earlier in the year, but the Yoshiko/Risa Sera vs. Nanae Takahashi/Akane Fujita Exploding Barbwire Bat Death Match on the 7/22 Zero1 show is pretty damn good. Much better structured, good brawling, and a bat shot actually leads to a finish. Well worth checking out.

Part of me wants to think that it was just a numbers game thing with Savoy. She's better than quite a few of the women who made it in, but several of those women were brought in to lose in the first round. She might be better off skipping this year assuming that the MYC is going to be an annual thing going forward. Granted, that's an optimistic view but didn't Dakota Kai have a tryout in 2014 and it took a while for her to get signed. Anyway, it's going to be extremely interesting to see how they book this. Who are the favourites? Io Shirai is the best in-ring worker under contract but would her winning be too samey after Kairi Sane winning last year? Does Toni Storm win because NXTUK is a legit thing now and they want to use this to kickstart building the woman's division around her? Or do they look at number of views that the highlight of Kavita Devi's match from last year got on YouTube and say"Screw it, let go!" giving her a Braun Strowman type push? They will most likely try to line up more high quality matches in the second and quarter-final rounds. Last year's tournament really lack those truly buzz-worthy matches that the CWC had. Probably will see something Io/Zeuxis, Meiko Satomura/Mia Yim, or Tegan Nox/Nicole Matthews. I do think we'll get a Toni/Meiko match with Toni winning because those two are going to have a singles match in September for EVE. Given typical political joshi booking, Meiko can get her win back there.

Jordynne Grace not being in was a surprise for me. She seems to be doing everything they want from someone coming up from the indies. She travels, works against a variety of people, and is super consistent in ring. I can't see an obvious reason for them to pass on her. It's disappointing that neither Nicole Savoy or Shazza Mackenzie didn't make the cut. In cases like those, I wish ROH and Impact would be a more favourable option. I don't think anyone was upset when Viper and Kay Lee Ray signed with World of Sport.

You guys missed counting Toni Storm.

The blocks were announced for the Stardom 5* Grand Prix Red Block: ⚫︎Kagetsu ⚫︎Jungle Kyona ⚫︎Tam Nakano ⚫︎Konami ⚫︎Natsuko Tora ⚫︎Rachael Ellering ⚫︎Kimber Lee ⚫︎TBA Blue Block: ⚫︎Mayu Iwatani ⚫︎Saki Kashima ⚫︎Momo Watanabe ⚫︎Hazuki ⚫︎Natsu Sumire ⚫︎Kelly Klein ⚫︎Nicole Savoy ⚫︎Jamie Hayter Given that the final looks like it's going to be held in Nagoya, I would expect Jungle Kyona to make it out of the Red Block probably pushed by Kagetsu and Rachael Ellering. The Blue Block is more open. Sumire Natsu and Jamie Hayter are the only ones who don't seem to have much of a chance to win. It will be interesting to see what happens with the title match between Kagetsu and Mayu Iwatani on 8/12. Before that match was announce I thought that Iwatani would be the favourite to win.

Cubs fan wrote up a nice little intro to Zeuxis here. She has always been someone I've should check out but never got around to. Same thing with Karen Q. Meanwhile, WWE took care of the obvious today by announcing Toni Storm is participating. People have dumped on Toni because of her World of Stardom reign but I feel she's had a great year. She was great in both of her short runs in Stardom and her wXw stuff has been really good as well.