aguakun
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Everything posted by aguakun
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HZK vs. Jungle Kyona This match has a vile-sounding headbutt in just the opening sequence! It's amazing that they were able to keep up the pace, because that looked (and sounded) like it hurt like hell. HZK's bully-esque offense was great, with her stomps and kicks to the head, and Kyona brings a certain raw emotion to her performances that draws you in. Great, hard-hitting match. ***3/4
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Konami, Michiko Ohmukai & Yoko Bito vs. Oedo Tai (Hana Kimura, Kagetsu & Kris Wolf) So Oedo Tai are breakdancing ninjas now. Alright. At least they've gotten a new and better entrance theme. Konami was amazing. Mommy Michiko is in incredible shape, and showed no signs of rust. Bito pinned Wolf with a Splash Mountain, which was interesting. This was a fun match! ***3/4 -
Wonder of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani © vs. Viper This was good. An obvious filler match, from the moment it was announced, but good. Mayu puts on a great performance as she fights hard for her big comeback; she's getting cut off and ragdolled before she rallies for her second wind, and Viper bumps like crazy. ***3/4
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Riho & Aasa Maika vs. Hikaru Shida & Mitsuru Konno The opening segment between Riho and Shida was an awesome clash of speed and power. Misturu Konno was chaining together crazy, painful-looking lucha holds. She's like the Negro Navarro of joshi. Shida and Maika have heat, and that led to fun moments. Great main event! ***3/4
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Aja Kong vs. Hikaru Shida It was an uphill battle for Shida, and she had to use whatever openings she could find, and seize the opportunity with shinai strikes and knees to head. Lots of back and forth bomb throwing in this, and Aja Kong looking like an immovable force. It didn't reach the violence of their past encounters, with the blood and what have you, and the double KO ending hurts, but I thought this was otherwise an awesome brawl. ***3/4
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Akane Fujita vs. Ryo Mizunami Ryo's a hard-hitter, Akane is a wrestler who knows how to take hard hits. This is a fine match-up, and they deliver a solid performance. I love that Akane's been taking bookings outside of Ice Ribbon lately. ***1/2
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Mima Shimoda vs. Yoshiko Yoshiko is a true pro, who can put on an entertaining match against just about anyone. Shimoda is not the performer she used to be, but she is in great shape and I thought she did a fine job here, albeit some awkwardness. There's outside brawling, chair shots to the head; Yoshiko drives Shimoda through one of the venue doors at full speed. This was a fun match. ***1/4
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Io did a run in at today's Stardom show then announced that she was entering the 5*GP. Two big questions are, just what condition is her neck actually in and what is her relationship with the WWE at this point? The Stardom English rep likes to post inside scoops on the Stardom reddit, and he seems to be implying that Io isn't leaving now.
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It wasn't 'all of a sudden'. In an interview leading up to G1, Okada said that the third generation wrestlers don't deserve a spot in the G1 and that they're boring to wrestle because no one believes that they will win, so naturally he is positioned as a heel when faced against Kojima.
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OZ Academy Tag Team Championship: Hikaru Shida & Syuri © vs. MK4 (AKINO & Kaho Kobayashi) I've been really enjoying AKINO's work lately, and I thought she was solid here; I dig her approach to these tag matches. Kaho is obviously the FIP, and she did a great job; Shida & Syuri's work over session was rough (in a good way). My favorite moment is when Shida chucks her shinai at AKINO. Great match. ***3/4
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Sendai Girls World Championship: Hiroyo Matsumoto © vs. Chihiro Hashimoto Chihiro is something else. She's like a sturdy wall of meat. This was definitely the weaker of the Chihiro matches from this year. It didn't have the sense of danger that her previous big matches did, and boiled down to an exchange of moves and the two using one another's finisher, and while all of this looked great, there wasn't much else going on here. ***1/4
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Aja Kong, Meiko Satomura & Nanae Takahashi vs. Mika Shirahime, Mio Momono & Rin Kadokura The segments between Satomura and Hime were fantastic, especially the one in the finishing stretch. Mika is just a god of body language and emoting. All of the rookie desperation spots and the veteran punishes were great too. Kong DEVASTATES Mio with this backdrop. Good generation struggle match. ***3/4
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Sendai Girls Tag Team Championship: Hikaru Shida & Syuri © vs. Cassandra Miyagi & DASH Chisako Good match; felt like it went longer than it needed to be, but the action never slowed down. This mini Shida-Miyagi rivalry is great, and I enjoy how Shida sells Miyagi's fuckery. Chisako spent most of the match getting bumped around and worked over, but she makes a surly comeback. Syuri had just signed dat UFC contract so the finish protected her a bit. ***1/2
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World of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani © vs. Yoko Bito I wanted to like this more, but there was just too much awkwardness, and during key, tide-turning spots too. They were trading heavy strikes; Mayu's legwork and the way Bito sold it was great. It had an intense feel, but the big moments they built to would have been so much more effective if they weren't so sloppy in execution. Bito just seemed off her game. ***
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Hana Kimura vs. Takako Inoue I thought Takako did a good job leading the rookie, and her work on top was crisp. I liked the STF struggle, and how she was clawing Hana's thigh during it! Hana also put on a strong showing with much stiffer elbow strikes than her ACE match with Hiroyo, and her front dropkicks and brainbuster were great as always, and I really enjoyed her selling (oversight to not have her take Takako's stun gun!). ***1/4
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Rina Yamashita vs. Yoshiko These two are like alternate universe versions of each other, so they make for great rivals. The finish is a lariat war where they're just trading heavy smacks, knocking the bajeezus out of one another. The selling and execution made it one of the more compelling lariat exchanges I've seen in a while; the blood from Rina's mouth splashes across her face in a sweet visual. ****1/2
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Queen's Quest (AZM & HZK) vs. Team Jungle (Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora) This was an awesome slugfest; action-packed. AZM connects gnarly kicks, and puts on her best performance yet. HZK brings the hate, Kyona brings the explosiveness, Tora continues to look impressive -- great match! ****
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Hana DATE vs. Maruko Nagasaki These two bring the intensity in their body language and facial expressions. It helps that Hana looks like she isn't all there. They're going at it with haphazard offense that I thought fit the narrative of this heated rivalry, before they get into the 'grounded' stuff. I enjoyed a lot of what Hana was doing here, and dug the ending where she kept pressing the advantage when she had Maruko down. ***1/2
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World of Stardom Championship: Io Shirai © vs. Mayu Iwatani This was a great match, but never reached that next level due to Io's selective selling of the neck. There are moments where she collapses due to her bad neck, followed by moments where she's jumping around, throwing German suplexes without so much as wincing. I thought it made the match less compelling, and Mayu's big moment didn't feel as grand because of it. But, there is a lot to be enjoyed here, like Mayu's tombstone! I hope she adopts it in tribute to Io. ***1/2
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Sendai Girls World Championship: Chihiro Hashimoto © vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto Hiroyo works over Chihiro's neck throughout, hitting a gruesome Gin and Tonic, and it leads to an amazing finishing stretch where the champion can't maintain the bridge of her German suplex due to the damage done to her neck. The selling was good; the pacing of the match feels smooth with an organic escalation, and Chihiro is just a sight to behold! This was an awesome clash of titans! ****1/2
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HZK vs. Io Shirai HZK almost snaps herself in half launching backwards on Io's front dropkick, and I loved the way she took Io's tombstone too. Her bumping was on point here. This was a back and forth match that flowed well, and HZK came off looking strong with her Michinoku driver on the apron. Unfortunately, the heat was lacking and the crowd was strangely not as lively as you would think for this match-up. ***
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Wonder of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani © vs. Hana Kimura This starts off lighthearted with Hana's sexy dance spot, but then she starts to work over the legs, until she decides to single out the leg wrapped in blue with one of the best ankle locks I have ever seen; Mayu is caught when she tries for a superkick and she is frantically trying to escape the hold, and her lankiness makes it look extremely painful. This was an intense and focused match with brilliant selling. Hana was throwing surly boots to the head. Mayu takes a diving dropkick like a car crash, and her comebacks feel like genuine struggle. Great work... up until Kagetsu comes in and the match ends on a DQ. Ah well. ***1/2
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OZ Academy Openweight Championship #1 Contendership (Special Referee: POLICE): Hikaru Shida vs. Mayumi Ozaki This was a cascade of fuckery, with a bias official, shinai, chains, and constant outside interference. It wasn't the sequel to their awesome 2013 brawl that I was hoping for, but it was an entertaining roadblock in Shida's path to the Openweight Championship. I thought it did a good job conveying the hopelessness of Shida's situation with the corrupt official, and they find a creative way for her to go over in this seemingly unwinnable situation. ***
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World of Stardom Championship: Io Shirai © vs. Toni Storm This was excellent; an intense high drama main event. Io puts a wicked beating on the challenger in the first act, with a dropkick while Toni's neck is trapped in a chair, followed by stomps, and a double knee smash into the ring post. This is the most vulnerable Toni Storm has ever looked in Stardom. Storm has Io down for the count after she hits her deadly piledriver, the culmination of a neck-workover of hip attacks and an Okada-style reverse neckbreaker, but her pride won't allow her to win that way. Io sells the damage amazingly, lunging around on the mat with a stiff upper body as she fights to make the comeback; easily the best selling I have ever seen from her. Great match! ****