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Decided to start this thread since both Stardom and Pro Wrestling WAVE now have their own streaming services, plus the Real Hero google drive makes it easier to find shows from other groups.

 

Just finished watching the opening night of the 5*GP. Thought it was a fine show, but nothing memorable. Storm/Bito, Hojo/Wolf, and Iwatani/KLR were all good yet would say that you have to rush out to see any of them. The only bad match was Blanchard/Watanabe, which was a mess. Courtney Stewart looked good having a short, solid match with Jungle Kyona. The show ended with promos from Kay Lee Ray, Toni Storm, and Io Shirai whom I assume they are teasing as being in the finals.

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I saw, and liked, Iwatani v Kay Lee Ray. It was a really fun match. There was a botched suicide dive but I can't comment on it, because there were too many girls crowded around for me to see how they recovered from it.

 

I haven't seen anything else, because Stardom's video player is usually unresponsive.

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I can't recommend enough Best Friends tag matches including the Best Friends vs Nanae Takahashi/Yoshiko match from JWP's 7/24 show. (Thank you Donsem43). Match for match, only the Revival has the same output of good to great matches on their 2016 resume and has more if you're doing the Obsever time frame. A match with Thunder Rock would put them over the top for me.

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That match is awesome although I can see some people having an issue with some of the sloppy moments in that match. Still the great way, way outweigh the bad in that match.

 

Honestly, there are a lot of great tag teams in joshi right now. One of my personal favourites are Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata and Ryo Mizunami.) They've teamed regularly for almost year and have been pretty great together with the both of them having great years in general. I really liked the Nanae Takahashi/Yoshiko team. Kaho Kobayashi has developed into a great tag wrestler while having two regular teammates, (Kagetsu in OZ Academy and Rina Yamashita in WAVE.) It's too bad Sendai Sachiko retired because seeing the Jumonji Sisters go up against these teams would be awesome.

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Just finished watching night two of the 5*GP, which turned out to be a good show. The Jungle Kyona/Kris Wolf opener was a nice surprise with good performances from both. Also enjoyed Iwantani/Blue Nikita. I thought Nikita might struggle because she moves a bit slow but she kept up well enough and did some fun heeling throughout. The main event of Io Shirai/Momo Watanabe was the best match of the night and the tournament so far.

 

According to Stardom's twitter account, Kairi Hojo suffered a concussion in her match with Io Shirai. She's sitting out tomorrow's show to get a doctor's evaluation and has already forfeited her match with Jungle Kyona.

 

UPDATE: Doctor says Hojo is fine but still sat out today's show.

 

A couple of upcoming matches to watch out for:

 

Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Hikaru Shida & Syuri (OZ Academy, 9/11)

 

Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Hiragi Kurumi & Tsukushi (Ice Ribbon, 9/19)

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Stardom's 8/28 show, night three of the 5*GP, was a very good top to bottom show. Another good opener between Kris Wolf and Momo Watanabe. A standard squash by Toni Storm on Hiromi Mimura. Mimura is really good at using her size and inexperience to play the underdog. Kay Lee Ray/Blue Nikita had worked together before in Europe, so while their match was good it did come off as a standard touring match. Courtney Stewart really impressed in her match with Kairi Hojo. She must have seen the match as an opportunity to make a name for herself and she came through with a quality performance. Jungle Kyona/Io Shirai came to a dead stop in the middle of the match when Io banged her shin into a chair after doing a moonsault to the floor. They made up for it by ramping up the intensity and ended up doing some great work in the back half of the match. The main was a draw between Yoko Bito and Mayu Iwatani. Great selling by Iwatani really carried the match.

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Wrapped up Stardom 9/3 show, night four of the 5*GP. The undercard was all short matches. Blue Nikita/Hiromi Mimura was a squash. Both Momo Watanabe/Courtney Stewart and Tessa Blanchard/Kris Wolf were both perfectly fine matches. Did enjoy Yoko Bito/Natsumi Maki because they did a great job of teasing the upset with Maki before Bito put her down with a flash high kick for the win. The top two matches carried the show. Toni Storm/Kay Lee Ray was a really good draw. It started out with some nice British counter wrestling then turned into more of a modern New Japan match towards the end with long, counter filled sequences at the end. Io Shirai/Kairi Hojo was great. Io is working the typical injured ace storyline that you get in these tournaments in Japan since she had surgery just before the tournament. Hojo worked over the back throughout the match and came through with a clutch win in the last minute after hitting some nasty shots to Io's back then applying a really nasty looking version of crosslegged Boston Crab hold to get the win.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like the concussion that Hojo suffered in that match was worse than first thought. She was reevaluated later this week and will now miss both shows this weekend. Also, Courtney Stewart had to leave due to family circumstances.

 

Meanwhile SEAdLINNNG announced a really awesome card for their 9/28 show:

 

Nanae Takahashi vs. Rina Yamashita

Arisa Nakajima vs. Ryo Mizunami

Yoshiko vs. Aja Kong

Tsukasa Fujimoto/Kaho Kobayashi vs. Leon/Tsukushi

 

Nakajima/Mizunami could be really awesome.

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Wrapped up Stardom 9/3 show, night four of the 5*GP. The undercard was all short matches. Blue Nikita/Hiromi Mimura was a squash. Both Momo Watanabe/Courtney Stewart and Tessa Blanchard/Kris Wolf were both perfectly fine matches. Did enjoy Yoko Bito/Natsumi Maki because they did a great job of teasing the upset with Maki before Bito put her down with a flash high kick for the win. The top two matches carried the show. Toni Storm/Kay Lee Ray was a really good draw. It started out with some nice British counter wrestling then turned into more of a modern New Japan match towards the end with long, counter filled sequences at the end. Io Shirai/Kairi Hojo was great. Io is working the typical injured ace storyline that you get in these tournaments in Japan since she had surgery just before the tournament. Hojo worked over the back throughout the match and came through with a clutch win in the last minute after hitting some nasty shots to Io's back then applying a really nasty looking version of crosslegged Boston Crab hold to get the win.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like the concussion that Hojo suffered in that match was worse than first thought. She was reevaluated later this week and will now miss both shows this weekend. Also, Courtney Stewart had to leave due to family circumstances.

 

Meanwhile SEAdLINNNG announced a really awesome card for their 9/28 show:

Nanae Takahashi vs. Rina Yamashita

Arisa Nakajima vs. Ryo Mizunami

Yoshiko vs. Aja Kong

Tsukasa Fujimoto/Kaho Kobayashi vs. Leon/Tsukushi

 

Nakajima/Mizunami could be really awesome.

I hope the that Seadlinng show is on Samurai TV. All of the Seadlinng shows have been good this year.

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  • 2 weeks later...

On their 9/22 show, JWP reran the Chikara King of Trios final as a series of singles matches plus had a Best Friends tag as the main event. Which more than likely means that this show was better than the 5*GP final show that Stardom ran the same day.

 

 

* JWP vs. Sendai Girls : Hanako Nakamori def. Cassandra Miyagi with Destiny Hammer (8:25)

* JWP vs. Sendai Girls : Command Bolshoi def. DASH Chisako with Pico Knee Smash (8:56)
* JWP vs. Sendai Girls : Meiko Satomura def. Manami Katsu with Death Valley Bomb (10:38)
* Best Friends ((W)Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) def. Leon & (L)Rabbit Miyu with Dragon Suplex Hold (21:46)

 

I wish that the WAVE Network uploaded more consistently because they have uploaded some really good stuff. Just from their August shows, Avid Rival/Las Aventureras, Ayako/Fujimoto, Avid Rival/Kurumi & Tsukushi, and Ayako & Yamashita/Nanae & Yoshiko were all pretty good if not great matches.

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On their 9/22 show, JWP reran the Chikara King of Trios final as a series of singles matches plus had a Best Friends tag as the main event. Which more than likely means that this show was better than the 5*GP final show that Stardom ran the same day.

 

 

* JWP vs. Sendai Girls : Hanako Nakamori def. Cassandra Miyagi with Destiny Hammer (8:25)

* JWP vs. Sendai Girls : Command Bolshoi def. DASH Chisako with Pico Knee Smash (8:56)

* JWP vs. Sendai Girls : Meiko Satomura def. Manami Katsu with Death Valley Bomb (10:38)

* Best Friends ((W)Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) def. Leon & (L)Rabbit Miyu with Dragon Suplex Hold (21:46)

I wish that the WAVE Network uploaded more consistently because they have uploaded some really good stuff. Just from their August shows, Avid Rival/Las Aventureras, Ayako/Fujimoto, Avid Rival/Kurumi & Tsukushi, and Ayako & Yamashita/Nanae & Yoshiko were all pretty good if not great matches.

The last time I heard about the Wave Network, they posted matches clipped. Is that true? I want to see these matches because I think Wave has a deeper roster than Stardom but with less fan fare. Do they still have regular TV?

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The matches are clipped but they seem to only clip out dead time, people sitting in holds or weak brawling on the outside. Other than the first Catch the WAVE show, I haven't seen anything that I felt was too clipped to know how good the match was. A lot of their TV from the last couple of years is up on YouTube and there are a couple of Nico tapings that have been up loaded from this year.

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I can't recommend enough Best Friends tag matches including the Best Friends vs Nanae Takahashi/Yoshiko match from JWP's 7/24 show. (Thank you Donsem43). Match for match, only the Revival has the same output of good to great matches on their 2016 resume and has more if you're doing the Obsever time frame. A match with Thunder Rock would put them over the top for me.

 

Watched a few more Best Friends tags last night. The 8/14 match where they lose the tag titles to Hanako Nakamori & )Kyoko Kimura was fantastic. Great selling from Nakajima and they kept Kyoko Kimura typical bullshit to a minimum. Also, on the same day, they managed to salvage a good match with Jun Kasai & Miyako Matsumoto after it looked like Matsumoto got her bell rung early on in the match. The match where they dropped the Ice Ribbon tag titles on 9/19 to Hiragi Kurumi & Tsukushi was really good too. They did a great job a carrying the two younger workers through a big title match.

 

As for the SEAdLINNNG show, I thought that Nakajima/Mizunami was great but that Takahashi/Yamashita was even better. Was disappointed in Aja/Yoshiko on first watch but will try and watch it again. I do wonder if Yoshiko has "topped out" in her development. She was really good so early but hasn't really gotten much better since then. I question if she can really carry the weight of being a main event regular in singles matches.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's going to be interesting to see which joshi wrestlers the WWE brings in for their women's tournament. I don't expect them to bring in more than a few but it's interesting to think about when you start seeing some big names dropping titles. If you consider Asuka's connections plus Sarah Stock's past association with Stardom, (she had her last match their before going to the WWE to be a coach,) it's pretty open as to who they might bring in.

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It's going to be interesting to see which joshi wrestlers the WWE brings in for their women's tournament. I don't expect them to bring in more than a few but it's interesting to think about when you start seeing some big names dropping titles. If you consider Asuka's connections plus Sarah Stock's past association with Stardom, (she had her last match their before going to the WWE to be a coach,) it's pretty open as to who they might bring in.

I saw the rumors on 2ch (which is a weird place btw) about Io Shirai going to WWE and the match with Yoko Bito is one to look out for. Also look out for Kaho Kobayashi as she's leaving Wave for an "overseas excursion". She's really good already and unless she's working in AAA, I would bet she would be in that tournament too. Not to parrot Joe Lanza but WWE needs to get as many wrestlers as they can from the Joshi scene in order for the tournament to look good.

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If the WWE is scouting talent in China for the tournament then they are more worried about international appeal than match quality. Besides, the talent level on the US/UK indy scene is a lot better then it was 10 or even 5 years ago. I don't see the need to freeze out those women just to slightly increase the chances of having a good match. Also, it's WWE, so you know looks are going to play a part in it. I would expect them to bring in a good, young, attractive, wrestler like Mika Iida or Maya Yukihi rather than say Ryo Mizunami, who's a great worker but doesn't fit the look they want in their women.

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It's going to be interesting to see which joshi wrestlers the WWE brings in for their women's tournament. I don't expect them to bring in more than a few but it's interesting to think about when you start seeing some big names dropping titles. If you consider Asuka's connections plus Sarah Stock's past association with Stardom, (she had her last match their before going to the WWE to be a coach,) it's pretty open as to who they might bring in.

I saw the rumors on 2ch (which is a weird place btw) about Io Shirai going to WWE and the match with Yoko Bito is one to look out for. Also look out for Kaho Kobayashi as she's leaving Wave "overseas excursion". She's really good already and unless she's working in AAA, I would bet she would be in that tournament too. Not to parrot Joe Lanza but WWE needs to get as many wrestlers as they can from the Joshi scene in order for the tournament to look good.

Kairi Hojo has openly said in an interview (on Stardom World, no less) that she wants to go to WWE. It makes sense, given that she wrestles the closest to a WWE style out of everyone in that promotion. She wouldn't even have to change her spots.

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It's going to be interesting to see which joshi wrestlers the WWE brings in for their women's tournament. I don't expect them to bring in more than a few but it's interesting to think about when you start seeing some big names dropping titles. If you consider Asuka's connections plus Sarah Stock's past association with Stardom, (she had her last match their before going to the WWE to be a coach,) it's pretty open as to who they might bring in.

I saw the rumors on 2ch (which is a weird place btw) about Io Shirai going to WWE and the match with Yoko Bito is one to look out for. Also look out for Kaho Kobayashi as she's leaving Wave "overseas excursion". She's really good already and unless she's working in AAA, I would bet she would be in that tournament too. Not to parrot Joe Lanza but WWE needs to get as many wrestlers as they can from the Joshi scene in order for the tournament to look good.
Kairi Hojo has openly said in an interview (on Stardom World, no less) that she wants to go to WWE. It makes sense, given that she wrestles the closest to a WWE style out of everyone in that promotion. She wouldn't even have to change her spots.

I did see that on Stardom World and I would be more than happy if Kairi went to WWE instead of Io. She's a great babyface, heart of the promotion and all of the foreign wrestlers seem to love her when they go to Stardom. (She was even wearing Tessa Blanchard's gear at the end of the last tour)

 

It's almost similar to the Nakamura situation in New Japan as Kairi won't get back to being the World Champ as long as Io and Yoko Bito are around. Kairi is almost 30 and the time for her to jump is now if she has an offer on the table.

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Hojo vs. Sasha Banks is a personal dream match but I'm not sure someone who has had two documented concussions in the last year would be able to pass a WWE medical.

 

Fyi, i figured out how to embed videos here so if you've had trouble finding any of the matches that I've reviewed then recheck the match discussion archive because they might be there.

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