Grimmas

Meiko Satomura Watch Party Every Saturday we get together at noon EST to spotlight a different wrestler for about two hours. This week was the wonderful Meiko Satomura. I've mostly seen her in the last 3 years ish and a mix and match of prior years. She's been so great for so long, so she's a high contender for me, but I need to watch more of a mix through out the years. That means I was pretty excited for this day. Meiko Satomura & Chigusa Nagayo vs Eagle Sawai & Keiko Aono (GAEA, 1995-05-14) She's 15 here and it's her 3rd match. Already she is a great house of fire babyface! Chigusa rules, as always. Sawai is fun and Aono is fun for someone I never heard of. Meiko doing John Cena shoulder blocks is fucking fascinating! Meiko wins with an awesome cross armbreaker! Fun shit already into her career! Meiko Satomura vs Kyoko Inoue (GAEA, 1997-09-20) I love Kyoko Inoue and I even smile if I see her work on a late Friday night on youtube in her current form. Meiko is now a few years in, so she's a grizzled veteran it seems! Meiko is already very vicious and does one of those jumping into a cross armbreaker from the apron to the fucking floor! She later one ups it taking her from the top rope to the ring! She also has those kicks and forearms. The selling of the shots by Inoue, where she is checking to see if her jaw is broken was excellent! Of course, Inoue will never be topped in a match with offense. Her lariats are killer, she has a spot I will talk about next, an insane backdrop driver suplex, her Niaga Ndriver, and even hits a super gourdbuster! You all know the spot where a heel puts on an armbar on the apron, while his partner feeds him opponents, until eventually his own partner gets his arm taken off? They do this here in a singles match! It ends with Inoue countering it into a reverse vertical suplex taking Meiko from the apron to the ring! This was fucking awesome! [7.0] Meiko Satomura vs Dynamite Kansai (GAEA, 2001-01-27) Here are two bad asses, doing bad ass things! Dynamite always blows me away with quick strike counters. This starts off hot with Dynamite kicking ass and builds and builds to a blistering finish. Meiko hit one too many DVDs for a little excessive nearfall, but it's a match to elevate Meiko so that's justifiable. This match is a joy! [8.0] Meiko Satomura vs Akira Hokuto (GAEA, 2001-04-29) I have now seen this match 4 times in 2021 and everytime I love it more! It's an all time classic filled with intense drama and stiff action. It's beautiful and a MUST WATCH. No spoilers from me! [10.0] Meiko Satomura vs Kana (Kana Produce Show, 2010-04-19) These two are kind of made for each other and it's the best kind of shoot style that I will watch. It builds up from the matwork, submissions, and vicious kicks into some of the bigger blows. It's beautiful and very straight forward wrestling, but damn they have some great counters. These two GET wrestling! [8.0] Meiko Satomura vs Io Shirai (Stardom, 2015-12-23) The last three matches have all been completely different! This was a Stardom match and builds really well. What I love about it is Io being more than willing to take INSANE bumps to make Meiko look even more bad ass. I'm not sure which of these three was the wildest: doing a moonsault in the crowd going over the steps, going for a springboard but getting kicked and flying to the floor, or her moonsault off the top being stopped by two feet to the face! Nutty stuff by Io, but Meiko ruled in this as well. This buids and builds into an intense finish. Another amazing match! [8.0] Meiko Satomura vs Aja Kong (Sendai Girls, 2016-04-08) After their epic feud a decade and a half before this, they renew it here and it still rules, even if Kong is slower now. They have some INTENSE looks pre match, so you get automatically excited! They have a great kick battle and it rules, before Kong gains control and then takes her all over the arena and destroys her! This includes a fucking brainbuster onto the barricade! It builds into a great finish. Definitely worth a watch and I love these lifetime partner matches [7.0] House Sendai Girls (Meiko Satomura, Dash Chisako, & Cassandra Miyagi) vs House Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, & Tyler Bate) (Chikara King of Trios Finals, 2017-09-03) This is a lot of fun, but had an odd finish. It built from a traditional fun FIP segment with Dash into a high octane trios match where everyone got to shine. Meiko is clearly the queen in this match and her and Dunne have great chemistry! We get to the ending where it's Dunne and Meiko and Dunne wins? That finish did not fit in with this match at all! I would go 7, but fuck that ending. [6.75] Meiko Satomura fucking rules and I am always excited to watch more of her! You should all do the same!

We are 35 minutes from the Meiko Satomura watch party! A legit #1 contender, everybody is welcome! https://sync-tube.de/rooms/qgseLavGM

Stardom Cinderella Summer Tour in Tokyo (2021-07-17) Here we are, at the show where Mayu can win Starlight Kid's freedom! 1) AZM vs Starlight Kid vs Hina Kind of unfair of Stardom to put Queen's Quest teammates against Kid. They do team up a bit, but Hina wants to win. This was fun and fast. Hina fit in, which is impressive. Kid keeps getting more heelish and does a fucking eye poke, that ruled! You don't need to go out of your way to see this one, but it's fun and you don't need to skip it if you are watching this show. 2) STARS (Hanan & Koguma) vs Lady C & Tam Nakano One of my favourite stories in Stardom is that Lady C is happy to team with anyone. Heel, face, whoever. Koguma and Hanan come out to remix of "When the Saints Come Marching In!" WTF? Tam and Lacy C come out to Tam's music next, and it's the best in wrestling so that counteracts it! This is an okay match, Lady C is still not good, but... one day. Maybe... I'm rooting for her. Koguma wrestles with so much joy, so that means I'm starting to dig her. Also, Lady C and Tam pulled out the Kawada-Taue double choke slam and back suplex move! I want to see more Koguma vs Tam. 3) Donna del Mondo (Giulia, Maika, & Syuri) vs Queen's Quest (Momo Watanabe, Saya Kamitani, & Utami Hayashishita) Maik's unrequited love for Momo makes me sad. Maika move on to someone who will love you back, you deserve more! Momo is no good for you! Maika sings about her love for Momo, while Giuila laughs her ass off. Syuri sings to end this promo and it rules! Queen Quest come back with Momo deadpanning: "Maika's been trying to recuit me, like some love call, but I'll keep rejecting her" had me in stitches. I love this angle. Wrestling is good! This match was all about teasing future awesome stuff. Mostly Utami-Syuri, but also Saya-Giuilia, and Momo-Maika. It was really good for a 15 minute draw. The stare off between Syuri and Utami was fucking epic, with Syuri shoving the SWA Title in her face! Giulia and Saya fight and fight post match too. Maika and Momo disappear, I hope to a nice quiet place. 4) Future of Stardom Champion Mina Shirakawa vs Unagi Sayaka The Future of Stardom Title can only have less than 3 years experience, so Mina will be in for a short run. That makes for an interesting story, and her first defense is against her teammate, who she beat in the finals a few weeks back. Unagi continues her hot streak, she's improving so quickly, and this is another good match which she WON! Odd booking to do it so quickly, but Unagi is a perfect champion. The post match stuff rules, with the emotions of Mina saying she lost, but will not let down the other Cosmic Angels and will keep the Trios titles for them. They hug it out, after some recent tension. Unagi is great her, she can hold the title until next year, on her 3rd anniversary. She'll do her best! Rina comes out and calls her a creepy old hag. LOL! Rina is 14, Unagi is 31, for the record. Unagi is a symbol for outcasts and says we will all get eccentric with her! Let's go! 4) Starlight Kid Recapture Gauntlet Match: Mayu Iwatani vs Oedi Tai (Fukigen Death, Konami, Rina, Ruaka, and Saki Kashima) Rules are Mayu goes one by one through the gauntlet and you can be eliminated by pin/submission over being thrown over the top. a) vs Rina Mayu does a cool modified dragon sleeper, while holding her in the air and having her legs wrapped up for a short first win. b) vs Fukigen Death Some comedy by the Clown and referee, and Mayu dropkicks her over the top for trhe win. c) vs Saki Kashima Mayu has a real challenge, finally. Saki kicks her ass, and cheats with her partners, but a lucky roll up by Mayu eliminates her. d) vs Konami Here we fucking go! Mayu is fighting like hell to try to save Kid, but Konami is a bad ass! This is competitive and can go either way. However, Konami ends up on the apron from the top rope and Ruaka's interference with the briefcase misfires and she goes to the floor. e) vs Ruaka The last segment, quickly turns into 5 on 1 with the referee being taken out. Pipes, chains, and chairs. They beat the shit out of Mayu, however the referee gets back in there and sees it. Oedi Tai is DQ'ed and Kid is free!!!!!!!!!! We then get one of the best angles in years! Mayu: Kid, do you want to stay with these guys always cheating and using weapons? Please tell me clearly. Kid: Mayu-san, my answer is... (Kid grabs Mayu's face) Kid: Mayu Iwatani, I'm gonna to stand against you and surpass you! (Kid shoves Mayu down) Kid: It's been a month, since I was forced to go to Oedi Tai, and what have you done? Even if I were to come back, I don't want to be Starlight Kid, Mayu's companion. When I'm on equal footing with you, maybe you can stand next to me. That's why I want to build a name for myself with Oedi Tai and become stronger! I'm going to become Mayu Iwatani's biggest rival! Kid: This is my answer. (Mayu looks sad) Mayu: Do you remember what I said at Korakuen? Kid, you might be my enemy... But I'll always be waiting for you. We can fight as enemies, and rivals, but we can always come back together. Until we meet again. Wrestling is a beautiful and wonderful thing. Stardom reminds me of that sometimes.

Syuri Part 2 will be done at some point, I'll include these!

Syuri I've loved Syuri the last few years and I think she is one of the best, if not the best, wrestler(s) in the world today. I watched a bunch of matches and I will talk about them below. Even though she started wrestling in 2008 that is not the whole story. From 2009 to 2015 she was a champion kick boxer going 13-1. From 2016 to 2019 she competed in MMA, winning a title in Pancrase and having 4 fights in UFC with an overall record of 6-3. I do think it's a little difficult to be great at pro wrestling, while also being great at MMA/kick boxing at the exact same time. That's why I haven't looked at her past before, but let's see what this group of matches says. Syuri vs Meiko Satomura (SMASH 1, 2010-03-26) This is from the debut of Tajiri's promotion. It's weird how many idiots on twitter make the argument that women and men's wrestling never appear on the same show in Japan, eh? She's so small and young here, all that said she still had awesome kicks! This is a holds and kicks matches and it's really damn fun. Meiko is the veteran and bigger, so she is able to keep the advantage. Syuri gets a huge rana here, something I don't see her do anymore. Syuri vs Kana (SMASH 4, 2010-06-25) Syuri gets into the main event of this show and the hype video for this rules. Syuri seems to challenge Kana who is on commentary, Kana kind of laughs it off, but then gets pissed and chases Syuri down backstage and kicks her ass. Kana walks away, and Syuri comes from the back and does the same into a pull part. UFC style sit down interviews intertwined. I loved this! Kana, aka Asuka, is a lock for my list at this point. If you've only seen her in WWE/NXT then you are missing out. Both of these two have amazing strikes, they have amazing matwork, and work that shoot style. This match is intense and it rules. Just go watch it. [7.0] Syuri vs Serena Deeb (WNC, 2013-08-10) This is a good match and it wasn't really a contrast in styles at all. It is more of a Deeb match though, as Syuri tones down her real fighting style. She's versatile at least. Syuri vs Yumiko Hotta (WNC, 2013-10-13) Syuri is MEGA OVER and gets a million streamers. Hotta has two seconds and they cheat and use weapons to basically gain advantage the whole match. Hotta with a chain dragging her all over the arena, they used a chair and flimsy table. Lots of triple teaming. We did get an awesome moment of Syuri fighting them all off and getting the win. Not much of a match. Syuri, Dark Angel, & Estrellita vs La Amapola, La Comandte, & Tiffany (CMLL, 2014-04-21) Syuri fits into lucha decently well! Dark Angel was treated and booked as the star. There was an old school Star move, and Commandate did a giant swing, so some big pluses. Final fall ends with the tecnicos (including Syuri) all hitting magistral cradles. Syuri vs Tsukasa Fujimoto (REINA, 2015-11-03) Fujimoto is someone else I love that people need to check out. It's a solid and normal match, mostly Fujimoto on top, but about 2/3 in it really picks up with Syuri's comeback. Really hot finish, and Syuri excels at that big time! Syuri Kondo vs Minna Grusander (Pancrase 284, 2017-02-05) I watched a MMA fight. I was curious. Solid grappling, Syuri kicks are awesome. She wins an unanimous decision. Syuri & Hikaru Shida vs Meiko Satomura & Hana Kimura (Sendai Girls, 2017-06-10) Syuri is a lot more like she is today in terms of looks and style and confidence. Her and Shida seem like a great team, they fit in so well together. Meiko is a master at letting everybody get their shine and putting everyone over. This builds very well into a hot finish. [7.0] I will need to go back and watch more, but it seems like Syuri's case is building the last few years and going forward and not the first half of her career. It's fun watching those matches though. She was never bad, always good.

AJW 1993-01-04 Sadly the only version of this show is edited on the AJW Classics, but it's a fun set of 4 matches. Plus I've hit 1993!! 1) Terri Power & Suzuka Minami vs LCO (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda) This one is heavily edited. One thing I love about LCO is that they are like the only legit tag team and that is nice to see. AJW mixes up partners so much, it can get confusing. Power's rana looked even more smooth here. From what we saw, this was a fun tag match. Suzuka hit a nice senton for the win. It's nice to see her get a win! 2) All Pacific Champion Akira Hokuto vs Debbie Malenko This match is either complete, or very close to complete. Thankfully so, because it rules! We got got a cool spot, where Debbie has Hokuto in a reverse choke and Hokuto pushes off the ropes and flips over to turn it into her own reverse choke! Steve Austin should had watched this match. A question that came to me in this match is: When will I feel comfortable with Hokuto coming off the top to the floor? I'm still not. Debbie really takes it to Hokuto and works her arm a lot. Hokuto sells it so well and it slows down all her offense. However, it doesn't stop Hokuto from hitting the Northern Lights Bomb! [7.0] Post match, Hokuto gives Debbie the trophy she was awarded for defending her title. She seems really impressed that Debbie pushed her that hard. 3) IWA Women's Champion Manami Toyota vs Sakie Hasegawa Sakie proves she is one of the smartest workers of the 1990s, because she doesn't work over Toyota's knee! Plus she has the best spinning back kick in the history of wrestling! I've been watching Toyota for a long time now and I have an explanation for her, I think. Toyota has ADHD! She can't sit still for too long. She has a million ideas and thoughts flowing out of her at all times. She forgets what she is doing, because a new idea comes to her and she must follow through with that. If Toyota was given Ritalin, joshi history may be different. She does have a great Quebrada though and wins with an awesome Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex. Although the spot of the match was a huge top rope power bomb counter by Toyota! 4) Bull Nakano & Aja Kong vs Kyoko Inoue & Toshiyo Yamada The winners of the Tag League (Inoue & Yamada) challenge the Mega Monsters! Now that Kong is champion, Bull dons purple to match up with her. I do love the friendship of Bull/Kong and how much they root for each other! Lots of fun stuff in this match, including Kong taking Yamada all around the arena like always. She seems to always do this to Yamada. She must think she is a legit challenger. Kong and Bull do a double flying leg drop off the top for a double pin. We are missing ten minutes of the match, so i can't rate it. It seems to have ruled though. A fun hour of Classics, episode 67.

UPDATED!

DylanZero said: " One of the brightest spots to ever come from IGF, Hideki's career has spanned from wrestling on BattlArts' last show to BJW champion to now NXT, I absolutely love his work and think he's one of the last to really "get" bridging the gap between real and worked wrestling. We're seeing a bit of a Revival of his style in GLEAT and sadly it's after he was signed to the WWE and gone from the country. That said his matches against a variety of opponents I enjoy not just the way he wrestles and his style but the fact that he makes everything feel earned, a rare trait for a modern wrestler in a pretty cooperative age. I also enjoy his slight differences to his approach depending on the style of his opponent. He still is doing his style but will change how he utilizes it against different opponents from big guys like Strong BJ, to guys not positioned on his level like Nomura & Kamitani to a technical guy like Thatcher to a striker like Nakajima he adjusts well against his different opponents. He just debut as I'm writing this in NXT and on paper he would have a fairly low ceiling in modern WWE but with the in-ring excitement of his virtual mirror Timothy Thatcher I can see a future where he adds to his case, which for me would put him over the top. I encourage everyone to check out his best work, including these matches: vs. Yuji Okabayashi - 5.5.2017 - BJW vs. Timothy Thatcher - 4.4.2019 - Josh Barnett's Bloodsport vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima - 2.16.2020 - Pro Wrestling NOAH"

Stardom Cinderella Summer Tour in Osaka (2021-07-10) I thought this would just be another basic Stardom house show, but damn it ended up being a fun show! 1) AZM vs Mina Shirakawa vs Saki Kashima Mina's prematch promo where she doesn't blink, because she is going to keep her eyes open since we all know AZM is the master of quick roll ups in three way matches. Kind of creepy with the eyes, but funny stuff. This was a speedy and fun opener, about 8 minutes. Lots of action. AZM rolls up Saki, so Saki should had probably listened to Mina's promo. 2) Konami vs Tam Nakano Two of my absolute favourites, but it's a house show so I didn't expect too much. This two, however, worked their asses off! Konami gets the better end of mat exchanges, obviously, but Tam sticks with her the best she can. She doesn't give up, eh? Konami, the constant dick, sits down and lets Tam kick her back. Tam, returns the favour and lets Konami do a kick. However, Konami instead kicks her in the face! That sets the tone, as Konami uses her Oedi Tai teammates to cheat through out this. Konami is such a killer, but Tam is the ultimate babyface and never gives up. We battle to a 15 minute draw. [6.75] 3) Oedi Tai (Ruaka & Starlight Kid) vs STARS (Mayu Iwatani & Koguma) A solid match ends with Ruaka getting DQ'ed for hitting Mayu too much with a pipe. She goes to finish Mayu off, but SLK stops her. They have a stare down and Mayu reaches for SLK to let her know she will rescue her, but Ruaka drags her away. I love this storyline! 4) Queen's Quest (Momo Watanabe, Saya Kamitani, & Utami Hayashishita) vs Donna del Mondo (Giulia & Maika) & Lady C With all the injuries, Donna del Mondo is using the very green and tall Lady C to help them out. As a reward, they give her a cool pair of sunglasses. A solid and fun match, but it's not going to hit super heights with Lady C being so out matched. 5) SWA Undisputed World Women's Champion Syuri vs Unaga Sayaka Unaga looks like she is ready for a big match here. I made that note, but I DID NOT EXPECT THIS! Early on Unaga tries to grapple with Syuri, but she is not on her level. Like at all. Unaga keeps trying, but is out matched. This is a very old school start. Heck, Unaga getting a headlock gets a pop from the crowd, just her getting an advantage for the first time. We start some fast movement from the grappling and Unaga gets in a big forearm, only for Syuri to take it and fire off a kick. Another mean kick gets a two. She then picks Unaga up and lawn darts her into the turnbuckles. A cocky cover for two and then right back to an armbar by Syuri. Unaga comes back with some more forearms, which Syuri is able to take again and then Syuri murders her with a knee to the stomach and a judo throw. Every single time Unaga gets anything, it's an amazing hope spot, but Syuri has this! Syuri with a VICIOUS kick. Unaga can barely get up and then eats another! Syuri lifts her up this time and then kicks her, where Unaga rolls to the floor. Tam and Mina have to encourage her to keep fighting and the crowd wants her too. Syuri, the whole time, just sits in the ring calmly waiting. Unaga goes for another forearm, back in the ring, but Syuri takes her down and mounts her and slaps the shit out of her, before tossing on another armbar. BUT! BUT! Unaga counters into the mount and lays some forearms, Syuri tries to counter out, but Unaga is unleashed and destroys her with forearms! She's lost it! Syuri finally gets out of it and stomps her to shit. What a hope spot. Syuri does some mean kicks, then some cocky Jericho esque kicks that just brush her face. Unaga counters a rush with a bodyslam, for another awesome hope spot! Syuri is up first and Unaga tries another forearm, but Syuri can take that shit and UNLOADS on her and knocks her down. Unaga fights to get up and we get a forearm exchange. Unaga actually has control, but eats a spinning kick by Syuri. Unaga fights back with an x-factor and a legdrop and for the first time this match, HAS CONTROL!! She can't get a backslide, but she gets a faceslam for two. However her frog splash is met with a knee to the face. Syuri viciously DDTs her, then puts her by the ropes and takes a run with a big knee knocking her to the floor. From the apron Syuri misses a flying dropkick, as Unaga is able to side step. Both are down and I'm losing my mind a little bit here! Back up, Syuri tries to kick Unaga's head off, but she ducks and Syuri's foot hits the post. Unaga rams her headfirst into the post. Syuri is able to ram Unaga into the side of the ring, but her running attack is caught into a stun gun on the apron. Back inside and Unaga unleashes some VICIOUS axe kicks to Syuri's back! This time she's able to hit the frog splash for a nice nearfall. Crowd loves this. We exchange counters and a german by Syuri leads to Unaga trying to hulk up, but it's a real struggle, but she is able to catch Syuri with a faceslam. Both up and a knee gets a double knockdown. Syuri goes for her finish, but Unaga wriggles out and gets a two on a roll up. A WILD KICK by Syuri is ducked by Unaga for another two count roll up. Syuri then is mad, unleashes a huge kick and tosses on another armbar. Unaga tries to fight, but Syuri rolls on top and really hooks it in with a wild look on her face. Unaga, barely barely barely gets her foot on the rope to break up the submission. AMAZING NEARFALL! Unaga, amazingly, gets on a Gory special and really stretches Syuri out, but she has to drop her because she's too hurt and exhausted. The vicious Axe kicks by Uanga return and people are buying into a new champion here. She gets a Michinoku Driver for two. Syuri drops Unaga onto both her knees and both are down. Unaga is able to get ontop of Syuri and unleashes SLAPS!!! MANY SLAPS, followed by a Double fist knocks Syuri down, but Syuri has kicks! Syuri PUNKS HER FACE OFF and the referee stops the match for a DQ! Holy shit! [7.25] I LOVED the story of this match so much. Unaga being out matched, but this was her chance to prove herself. Syuri being too cocky, but for good reason. Watch this, it rules! I may be under rating it! Post match, Syuri yells at Unaga asking if she is still alive? When she first heard that Unaga got a SWA Title shot, she thought "What the hell?". This really plays into the story of the match. At the end of Unaga's 7 match trial, Syuri told her to rise up. Syuri say growth today, but not enough! She tells her to go for Mina's Future of Stardom belt, because it's a waste of time to challenge for her SWA Title. A title she will make the most prestigious in Stardom. What a fucking promo! Syuri and Donna del Mondo end the show, thanking Osaka. Usually Stardom's house shows are fun, but skippable. Don't skip this one!

Larry Zbyszko is up today at 12 eastern! Including matches against legends like Bockwinkel, Dusty, Bruno, and Kid Kash! https://sync-tube.de/rooms/4MkZvYWtW

I was kind of discouraged from writing, and threw out some notes, but I was persuaded to return to discussing my joshi writing. Now how do you I get you all caught up with one month of viewing? Luckily I keep a google sheet active, so that helps, but expect future updates to have more details. Let's start in 2021. GAEA returned! Well, for one night at least. Meiko Satomura's Sendai Girls and Chigusa Nagayo's Marvelous got together and produced something really cool. Leading up to that show there was a pretty fun tag match from 2021-03-11 featuring Chichiro Hashimoto & Canon against Mio Monomo & Ai Takarayama. Hashimoto is an awesome power wrestler and Mimono is super fast, but not in a bad way. This was pretty damn fun. The big GAEA show was on 2021-06-13. There was some rookie matches, a Great Sasuke comedy match, a wild hardcore match, a legend's match, and then the main event. Chihiro Hashimoto & DASH Chisako & Mika Iwata (Sendai Girls) vs Mei Hoshizuki & Mio Momono & Rin Kadokura (Marvelous) The match was under elimination rules, but the winning team got control of both the GAEA titles and the Sendai Girls titles. Sadly Takuma Iroha was inured and couldn't be here to bring this to the next level. It was a pretty awesome match, that I ranked at 7.75, coming down to drama with Hashimoto going 2 on 1. People should really find it and watch it! Iroha came out after and made some kind of challenge to Hashimoto which is a match I am dying to see! After that show, the feud between Marvelous and Sendai Girls continued and produced another great match with Mio Monomo and Chichiro Hashimoto going one on one. When you have power vs speed, these two match up so well. 7.25 from me. Of course, I am also watching all of Stardom and there is a LOT of it. I highly suggest Stardom World, because it subtitles the promos which makes it really easy to follow. There is a lot of nothing house shows, but there is always some fun on those shows, and the stories have been really good. Let's catch you all up on Stardom. June 19th to 27th. The big intrige was Starlight Kid and how she would fit in with Oedi Tai. What we got as a very dejected and reluctant SLK forced to wrestle against her former STARS friends. After many shows of this, Natsuko Tora offered SLK a new mask and told her that her former friends never supported her and she should embrace her evil. In a great moment SLK took the mask, and said she would be evil in her own way. Awesome stuff. Lots of decent wrestling. Unagai Sayaka had a time limit match with Momo Watanabe which felt like Unagai maybe might be good happened on June 23rd. There was alos a really good draw between Konami and Utami Hayashishita which I ranked at 7.0. The next big Stardom show was on July 4th "Yokohama Dream Cinderella in Summer" which also had English Commentary. Another solid show by Stardom, but a little step down from the previous PPVs of the year. The tournament finals to determine the winner of the vacant Future of Stardom Title took place between the Cosmic Angels of Unagi Sayaka and Mini Shirakawa, and this was one of the first times I thought Mina was actually good. A real stand out here and very unexpected. Mina is now the champ! The Goddesses of Stardom, Giulia and Syuri, successfully defended their titles against Mayu Iwatani and Koguma of STARS. Giulia went from a top miss superstar with me, until she lost her chair, and now is really not hitting with me. I think she'll get it back, but right now... Syuri as a bad ass on her own rules, her teaming and doing silly stuff with Giuluia doesn't hit. The match of the night was Tam Nakano successfully defended her Wonder of Stardom Title against Saya Kamitani (the Cinderalla winner). I gave it 7.5. Tam is my current favourite wrestler and I can't help but root for her. Saya has really come on this year, and this was excellent stuff. The main event with Utami Hayashishita and Natsuko Tora ended early with Tora getting a serious injury. I've also seen the Korakuen Hall show from July 6th. Maika and Momo Watanabe had a fun draw, and the story of Maika trying to recruit Momo for Donna del Mondo is nice stuff. Another story coming out of this show was Mayu issuing a challenge for a rematch to win back SLK and Fukigen Death from Oedi Tai. Konami, now the spokeperson of Oedi Tai, instead demanded Mayu take on Oedi Tai 5 on 1 with over the top rope eliminations where if Mayu wins, SLK can make her own choice about leaving or staying in Oedi Tai, which Kogumi convinced her to take the challenge because she'll win. In the main event Cosmic Angels retained their Trios Titles over Queen's Quest. Another good match. We had a Jackie Sato Watch Party and it fucking ruled! Everybody watch more Jackie Sato! Back to the 1990s, which is the biggest of my focus for GWE, at least. This section, will be more lists than comments. The next update will have more thoughts. 1992-09-11: Bull Nakano vs Yumikot Hotta [7.0] 1992-09-15: Akira Hokuto vs Suzuka Minami [7.75] 1992-09-19: Akira Hokuto & Bull Nakano vs Combat Toyota & Megumi Kudo [8.75] This was a FMW match and the first real interpromotional match in that upcoming war! Someone took a highlight video and handheld and mixed it together to give the full match. The atmosphere is SO great and this match rules. 1992-10-17: Suzuka Minimai & Yumiko Hotta vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada [7.75] Debbie Malenko & Sakie Hasegawa vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue [7.5] Akira Hokuto & Etsuko Mita vs Bull Nakano & Cynthia Moreno [7.0] 1992-11-02: Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto [7.75] 1994-11-04: Double Inoue vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada [7.0] The most awesome thing I watched during this period was the November 26th Dream Rush! Kadaveri was able to get the prommos subtitled which made the whole experience one of the best shows in history! Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Chikako Hasegawa & Miori Kamiya was a fun tag opener! Suzuka Minami & Yumiko Hotta vs Takako Inoue & Terri Powers was the best Terri Powers match I have seen yet and I rated it at 7.0. Inoue is really growing on me, the more I see her. I'll forever be a fan of Minami from her Marine Wolves time and I think she rules whenever she gets a chance to shine, like here. Debbie Malenko & Sakie Hasegawa vs Eriko Tsuchiya & Yoshika Maedomari was a smaller interpromotional match. Shark was pretty injured, so it was mostly Maedomari working her. They got some of their FMW stuff in and it was fun with a HOT crowd. Bat Yoshinaga vs Kyoko Kamikaze where Bat defended her WWWA Martial Arts Title. People shouldn't sleep on Bat and this title! It was a fucking stiff war! Kaoru Ito won the AJW Title from Tomoko Watanabe in another good match, sadly I missed part of it, but Ito's foot stomps are awesome! I think this is where the Bison Kimura retirement ceremony was (if not it was on the show) and it was so awesome to see with subtitles. Aja Kong says she will win the title tonight and wants Bison in her corner. What an awesome moment between those two! Akira Hokuto lets us know that titles mean shit, it's all about interpromotional wars! She then goes on to win the All Pacific Title in a classic. [9.5] Afterwards Hokuto sees the Kandori at ringside, insults her and it's fucking on! After over two years Bull Nakano's WWWA Title reign comes to an end at the hands of Aja Kong in a 9.75 classic! Kong wins with the flying legdrop in sweet poetic justice. Kong says she couldn't had done it without Nakano making her better, and Nakano demands she raise the prestige of the belt. They hug, all time classic moment! The main event is an all time classic, everybody knows about. I went 10.0, not surprisingly. Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota defeated the invaders of Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki in an insane match. Moving on from Dream Rush, there was a few more matches I watched. Also, I kind of kept notes! Akira Hokuto vs Takako Inoue (AJW 1992-12-13) One thing I love about Hokuto is she never stays in a submission for too long, she always finds ways to make the submission more vicious. Everything is vicious, even before turning her over for the Sharpshooter she gives a mean kick. Outside Hokuto tosses her into the guardrail. Inoue is pissed and is ready to fight, but when she gets in the ring Hokuto just goes back onto destroying her with one of the most vicious half Boston crabs ever! A knit spot was Hokuto getting tied up on the top turnbuckle and then Takako kicks out her knee and hits the plancha. Drops her knee on the table and then goes to work on her knee! Great leg work, and selling by Hokuto. But, Hokuto guts through and hits a Northen Lights Bomb for the win. [7.25] Kyoko Inoue & Aja Kong vs Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota (AJW 1992-12-13) Yamada and Kong are the two work horses in this one. A great moment with Inoue has Yamada in a surfboard and Kong gets in the ring and challenges Toyota to come in and break it up. Basically calling Toyota a fucking loser, and Toyota does not even try to challenge her. Yamada and Kong battle all over the arena for a nice segment, and eventually Toyota gets in and does a million drop kicks. The finish ruled as Kong held up Toyota up in the Doomsday Device position, and Inoue comes off the top with her backwards elbow for the win. Kong is super happy for Inoue to get the win. [7.0] Finally, Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs Mayumi Ozaki & Hikari Fukuoka (JWp 1992-12-01) No real comments here, because the production was so shit garbage I was too annoyed to take notes, but the match was awesome. Interpromotional wars just hit a different level. [7.25] I'll try to get these up weekly, so I can be more thorough and have these cover less.

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I do think anyone who did a diving headbutt after 2007 loses points with me, that's just plain stupid.

How did Nanae kill the joshi scene? Seems like an odd claim. Whether you like her in ring here is a different topic. I'm not ready to make a big case for her, I've liked what I've seen. There is a LOT of great female workers, so not top 100 is really not a dig.

Oh there is so many people I want to know about from your watching! Please share who you've liked major or not major! Some more minor ones I've loved are Kyoko Inoue from the past. If you go more modern there is a lot! Someone like Command Bolshoi has a really strong case for me.