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Arisa Nakajima leaving JWP at the end of the year is interesting news as well.

 

Arisa is my favourite Joshi wrestler from the current generation so I'm pretty excited to see what's in store for her coming next year. With Io and Hojo leaving STARDOM she'd make a great replacement for the void they'd leave. Is it possible that WWE is interested in her as well, especially with the rumored women's tournament in the works? Worst case scenario is that just ends up working Nanae's promotion full time but even that's a step up from her current situation in JWP since their shows actually get aired on TV. I can't imagine she'll just end up bouncing around OZ, WAVE, Ice Ribbon, etc., hardly seems worth leaving her home promotion for that considering she was doing that anyway while she was with JWP.

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Arisa Nakajima leaving JWP at the end of the year is interesting news as well.

Arisa is my favourite Joshi wrestler from the current generation so I'm pretty excited to see what's in store for her coming next year. With Io and Hojo leaving STARDOM she'd make a great replacement for the void they'd leave. Is it possible that WWE is interested in her as well, especially with the rumored women's tournament in the works? Worst case scenario is that just ends up working Nanae's promotion full time but even that's a step up from her current situation in JWP since their shows actually get aired on TV. I can't imagine she'll just end up bouncing around OZ, WAVE, Ice Ribbon, etc., hardly seems worth leaving her home promotion for that considering she was doing that anyway while she was with JWP.

I feel the same way as I can't imagine her just leaving JWP to do the same bookings as she did before. The Seadlinnng thing is something I haven't even thought of. They are gonna have 7 Korakuen Hall shows in 2017 and looking at the claimed attendance numbers, they are not far off from Stardom. They draw roughly the same as JWP and smoke WAVE as WAVE has probably the lowest numbers at Korakuen for any wrestling promotion this year. Granted Nakajima wrestles on all of those shows anyway but it's something to think about. I would go with Stardom & WWE being the leaders if she truly a free agent.
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For match recommendations on Joshi from the last decade, here's a thread to start with:

 

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/31922-best-joshi-of-the-last-10-years/?view=getnewpost

 

Also, Donsem43 made a great list of best women's matches from last year and a lot of them come from Japan.

 

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/32117-top-20-womens-matches-of-2015/?fromsearch=1

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Arisa Nakajima leaving JWP at the end of the year is interesting news as well.

Arisa is my favourite Joshi wrestler from the current generation so I'm pretty excited to see what's in store for her coming next year. With Io and Hojo leaving STARDOM she'd make a great replacement for the void they'd leave. Is it possible that WWE is interested in her as well, especially with the rumored women's tournament in the works? Worst case scenario is that just ends up working Nanae's promotion full time but even that's a step up from her current situation in JWP since their shows actually get aired on TV. I can't imagine she'll just end up bouncing around OZ, WAVE, Ice Ribbon, etc., hardly seems worth leaving her home promotion for that considering she was doing that anyway while she was with JWP.

I feel the same way as I can't imagine her just leaving JWP to do the same bookings as she did before. The Seadlinnng thing is something I haven't even thought of. They are gonna have 7 Korakuen Hall shows in 2017 and looking at the claimed attendance numbers, they are not far off from Stardom. They draw roughly the same as JWP and smoke WAVE as WAVE has probably the lowest numbers at Korakuen for any wrestling promotion this year. Granted Nakajima wrestles on all of those shows anyway but it's something to think about. I would go with Stardom & WWE being the leaders if she truly a free agent.

 

 

I can imagine that STARDOM may have offered her a contract upon Io and Kairi getting offers from WWE (plus the lure of wrestling on TV in the top Women's fed in Japan instead of your shows only being streamed via one camera on NicoNico) because they really need someone to carry the promotion and Iwatani isn't ready just yet. Or she very well could be WWE bound. Maybe the only way she had a shot at WWE/the women's tournament was leaving JWP because Bolshoi is very protective of their talent and restricts a lot of what they can do outside of their promotion and how they're booked.

 

The only thing that seems off is that they're already getting Io and Kairi, would they really want a third Japanese female wrestler? I think she may just do the women's tournament and see what happens from there, maybe she'll get offered a contract along with other women like the Crusierweight Classic. I guess there will be another Joshi or two in the tournament since Io and Kairi won't be able to make it in time. Fujimoto and Shida maybe?

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I get the feeling that the Hojo news is going to keep ping-ponging between her going/not going till either Stardom or Kairi herself make an official announcement. I imagine it's a really difficult decision because there is definitely a large risk in her getting another head injury. If that happens then I highly doubt the WWE would make another offer. With Stardom, they have to have Iwatani beat Io now, even if Hojo decides to stay. It won't be nearly as big if you just go from Io to Hojo to Iwatani so there is no real choice to me. Bito should also be the one to beat Hojo for the Wonder of Stardom title. I could see them using a foreigner like Kay Lee Ray or Viper as a transitional champ for either one of those belts.

 

I'm not surprised at Arisa Nakajima going freelance. I was actually expecting it since last year when she dropped the JWP title to Kayoko Haruyama but it didn't happen. I imagine the main reason joshi wrestlers go freelance is because it frees up their schedules. It might hurt their push when it comes to the promotions they work but that might not matter much if there really isn't much more money to be made. I would be very shocked if she showed up in Stardom after how the whole Best Friends/Thunder Rock deal broke down.

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Here are my thoughts on the October Stardom Korakuen show and the future of Stardom.

 

http://wrestlingwithwords.com/stardom-october-showdown-review-results-october-30-2016-and-whats-the-future-for-stardom/

Sounds like the main event was better with commentary. It was a very sparse match that had a quieter crowd than usual for these main events, so there was something missing when watching it on Stardom World. I'm not a fan of these "ref stops someone from doing a move or pinning their opponent" spots. They seem so awkward. Really good match though, and a nice ending to a lackluster card.

 

It's surprising that with Io and possibly Kairi leaving there's no real sign of pushing anyone else up the card.

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So this week in the Observer, not only is Hojo reconsidering but Io is to because she would blocked by Asuka. I'm sure it will be different again next week.

 

The Nakajima/Kimura rematch for the JWP Title is up. Found the match to be disappointing. The things that really annoy me about Kimura show up, (shoehorning in her heel shtick, cutting off her opponents comebacks to soon,) plus she works like she just ate too much turkey at holiday meal. Arisa tries, but Kimura isn't as salvageable as Ozaki was earlier in the year

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  • 2 weeks later...

The 11/3 Ice Ribbon show is a pretty good top to bottom show. I don't the main isn't quite the MOTYC that some have said, but it's still damn good. While she's only 18, Tsukushi is looking like she's ready to breakout as a top-level worker. Honestly, looking at the promotion as a whole, Ice Ribbon looks a lot more promising than Stardom does over the next year or two, that's even considering the chance that both Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo stay. Ice Ribbon just has a more complete roster with a few younger workers that have great star potential that are ready to break through.

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So this week in the Observer, not only is Hojo reconsidering but Io is to because she would blocked by Asuka. I'm sure it will be different again next week.

What's the actual beef between Io and Asuka?

 

The 11/3 Ice Ribbon show is a pretty good top to bottom show. I don't the main isn't quite the MOTYC that some have said, but it's still damn good. While she's only 18, Tsukushi is looking like she's ready to breakout as a top-level worker. Honestly, looking at the promotion as a whole, Ice Ribbon looks a lot more promising than Stardom does over the next year or two, that's even considering the chance that both Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo stay. Ice Ribbon just has a more complete roster with a few younger workers that have great star potential that are ready to break through.

Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll try to follow Ice Ribbon more closely going forward.

 

The recent changes in Stardom seem like a decent attempt to break up the stagnation on their roster. It's strange that they're running all these good angles on smaller shows, but I don't really know how these sort of things get disseminated in Japan.

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Forgive me as the dates are fuzzy but they were both in a group together, along with Io's sister Mio, called Triple Tails. That ended in late 2011 when Io decided to join Stardom. The big problem there is the Asuka had a very public falling out with Nanae Takahashi a couple of years earlier, and Nanae was Stardom's top star at the time. In addition to that, Io was arrested for marijuana possession while coming back from a tour in Mexico which came pretty close to ruining her career, (she was later clear.) That, plus Io's relationship with Nosawa, (who was also arrested at the same time,) seemed to cause a deep split between Io and Mio/Asuka. The two sisters did work together during Mio's retirement run, but Asuka wasn't on any of those shows. Granted, this is probably around the time that Asuka started negotiating/signing with the WWE so that might have played a small part. Mio's actual retirement was right around the time Asuka moved to Orlando. As far as I know that's the story, although I apologize if I "Scott Keith'd" anything.

 

For Ice Ribbon, I would start with the 10th Anniversary show and go on from there if you can. Nothing that will knock will knock you off your feet but they are solid, entertaining shows.

 

I'm definitely taking a "wait and see" approach with this Stardom reshuffling. Any time they've tired it before either someone gets hurt or leaves the company. Rossy Ogawa tried it in Arsion to and it was a big dud back then, but that was before Dragon Gate so who knows if it will be different now.

 

Also, for upcoming stuff, Sendai Girls has Meiko Satomura vs. Aja Kong on the 11/23 show in a #1 contender match. Haven't been able to find out if the show is being taped or not. WAVE is running the semi-finals of their NEXT tournament on 11/27 with one of the semis being Misaki Ohata vs. Ryo Mizunami, which should be something with both have great years. Hopefully that gets uploaded to the WAVE Network although they have become inconsistent in uploading stuff again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

On the 12/21 Seadlinnng Korakuen Hall show, Nanae Takahashi vs ODB is the main event, Yoshiko/Sareee vs Aja Kong/Arisa Nakajima, Ayako Hamada/Ryo Mizunami vs Hiroyo Matsumoto/Syuri.

 

We'll see how Nanae looks by the 21st cause she has a Lethwei fight in Myanmar on 12/11. Just judging from a couple of videos, Lethwei is basically taped fist kickboxing.

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Also, Io vs Mayu is going down for the World of Stardom Title on the December 22nd Year End Climax. Kind of a giveaway that Io is on her way out but they did shock me when she didn't drop it to Bito.

I wonder if she'll drop it to Io or they'll drag this thing out another month or two. Stardom has been pretty good since the last Korakuen show.

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A lot to unpack here.

 

According to guy who is a English teacher in Japan, Io did a Q&A session and avoided all WWE talk throughout the night which is another tipoff since the policy for wrestlers getting signed is to not acknowledge that they are signed (Models and former other sports athletes are more upfront)

 

https://m.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/5hcgay/tonight_im_meeting_io_shirai_what_questions/?st=1Z141Z3&sh=19ef469f&compact=true

 

Nanae won her Lethwei fight by KO.

 

Kyoko Kimura will challenge Hiroyo Matsumoto for the Oz Academy Title on the 1/8 show.

 

And OZ claimed 2,100 for the Dynamite Kansai Retirement Show in Korakuen. That show airs on Christmas Day.

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The thing that really stuck out to me was her continuously trying to use English throughout the night. While Stardom World does market the use of English as a selling point, nobody on the roster outside of Hojo and Io even try to speak English. If she does sign with WWE, Io doesn't have a big personality, even though she carries herself a star extremely well, so promo are going to be more important to her. Asuka has been able to get by with being very animated both in and out of the ring, as it's clear she doesn't have a good enough handle on English to cut promos on a regular basis. It was interesting that Io seems to really want to work with Asuka again and also wants to work so gimmick matches like TLC.

 

With the Kansai retirement, it occurred to me that she's the first big 80's/90's star to have retired while still working regularly since Lioness Asuka in '05. Devil Masami was only working sparingly when she retired in '08. That's pretty surprising that a lot her peers are still going and might have added to the appeal of this show. Some pictures from the show in the spoilers:

 

 

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In Ice Ribbon news, they set the semi-finals in the tournament for the vacant ICExInfinity title on the 12/31 show. One semi is a rematch between Tsukasa Fujimoto and Tsukushi, while the other is Risa Sera vs. Hiragi Kurumi. All four are pretty good, if not great workers, so it should be a pretty good show.

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I wonder if Dynamite was ever on the Observer HOF ballot.

 

She's one of the greatest wrestlers ever and she's main evented some of the biggest Joshi puroresu shows in history (and not in home promotion either). Her and Ozaki were JWP and JWP was basically WCW to AJW's WWF. I think she has a better case than a lot of wrestlers on the ballot when you start to look closer.

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I don't know if she was ever on it. I know Kyoko Inoue was on for a few years but fell off. Aja Kong was the last joshi wrestler voted in and generally considered the last serious candidate from that era. I don't think anyone ever seriously discussed Kansai.

 

If Sendai Girls keeps growing, which is weird to say about a promotion with just 5 wrestlers on its roster, I could see Meiko Satomura possibly building a case. It would probably be similar to CIMA where it's build as much on training and influence as much as drawing and in ring work. It's something to keep an eye on going forward.

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The thing that really stuck out to me was her continuously trying to use English throughout the night. While Stardom World does market the use of English as a selling point, nobody on the roster outside of Hojo and Io even try to speak English.

Hojo's English on Stardom World is pretty good, and you can tell Io is at least interested in speaking more. Hana Kimura busted out a pretty clean English accent in a prematch promo with Kris Wolf, but no clue how much of a conversation she can hold.

 

If she does sign with WWE, Io doesn't have a big personality, even though she carries herself a star extremely well, so promo are going to be more important to her. Asuka has been able to get by with being very animated both in and out of the ring, as it's clear she doesn't have a good enough handle on English to cut promos on a regular basis.

In Lucha Underground she got herself over pretty quickly with her athleticism and ridiculous spots, but I'm not sure if WWE will go for that.

 

It was interesting that Io seems to really want to work with Asuka again and also wants to work so gimmick matches like TLC.

I wonder if we'll see a Queen's Quest garbage match in this current run.

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