Thursday, July 12, 2018

Momo Watanabe vs. Deonna Purrazzo (Stardom, 6/23/2018)

Stardom - Shining Stars 2018 (6/23/2018)

Wonder of Stardom Championship: Momo Watanabe (c) vs. Deonna Purrazzo

I didn't find Deonna's previous work in Stardom impressive so I was caught off guard by how great she was here. She stuck to her game plan of targeting the arm and did a tremendous job working on top. Momo made strong counterattacks with violent stomps to the head and B Drivers.

***3/4

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Tokyo Joshi Pro - The 5th Tokyo Princess Cup Final Fight (7/8/2018)

1. Tokyo Princess Cup - Semi Finals: Yuu vs. Nodoka-oneesan

This was an enjoyable sprint with an exciting closing run. Nodoka's counters at the end were very well timed.

***

2. Tokyo Princess Cup - Semi Finals: Yuka Sakazaki vs. Rika Tatsumi

Pissed-off Rika! Rika was aggressive, thinking on her feet, making those split-second counters. That frustration also led to mistakes that Yuka was able to capitalize on. Good storytelling in this match. Rika hits a cool Twist of Fate between the ropes, and nailed that diving hip attack. 

***3/4

4. NEO Bishiiki-gun (Saki-sama, Azusa Christie & Martha) vs. Shoko Nakajima, Yuki Kamifuku & Hikari

Bii-Gun were a lot of fun in this match, especially Azusa. It's refreshing to see them being characters again instead. Hikari taking advantage of Bii-gun's in-fighting and almost getting the upset on Saki-sama was fun.

***

6. Tokyo Princess Cup - Finals: Yuka Sakazaki vs. Yuu

I liked the early mat work and there were cool cut-offs, but this fell flat overall. The second half lacked the tension that you expect from a high stakes tournament finale. There was no sense that it could go either way. Yuka came off looking uncharacteristically weak as Yuu destroyed her with hardly any struggle.

**1/2