TAKA & Taichi Produce - 3rd Anniversary Convention (12/30/2016)

1. NEX4 (Ayato Yoshida, Dinosaur Takuma, GO Asakawa & Kyu Mogami) vs. SFU (Kaji Tomato & Shiori Asahi) & Sekitoba (Kotaro Yoshino & Taishi Takizawa)

Decent opener. You can always count on Shiori to do interesting stuff.

**1/2

2. Bambi vs. ERINA vs. Koharu Hinata

This is my first time ever seeing ERINA in action. She didn't do a whole lot here. K-DOJO is the company that also trained Apple Miyuki and Tomoka Nakagawa and molded Yuu Yamagata, so ideally she grows into something good.

*

3. Hardcore Match: Jun Kasai vs. Takashi Iizuka

Boring.

no

4. Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Yuki Sato

Classic Big Yen Yoshinobu, dull and heatless. Where is Despy on this card?

*

5. TAKA Michinoku vs. Yoshitatsu

TAKA tries to make Yoshitatsu look good, but it didn't work that way for me. Tatsu was boring, but whenever TAKA was on the offensive this match was awesome. The wrong former WWE guy went over.

**1/2

6. Minoru Suzuki vs. Taichi

This was structured like a fiery young lion vs. established veteran match, but with the interesting dynamic of both of them being heels. Two bad guys doing bad things to each other, and that's just what the people paid to see.

***3/4

Tokyo Joshi Pro - Beer Garden Fight 2016 (8/13/2016)

1. Maho Kurone vs. Nodoka-oneesan

This match saw the debut of Maho Kurone. There were some wonky transitions, but this was alright.

*1/2

2. Tokyo Princess Cup - Semi Finals: Hyper Misao vs. Shoko Nakajima

Hyper Misao is not good. Nakajima does a half-way decent job getting the best out of a bad worker.

**

3. Tokyo Princess - Semi Finals: Akane Miura vs. Yuu

Good sprint between two chubby wrestlers. Akane has that stocky Tomohiro Ishii build and Yuu has a judo background so she's a bit of a natural. Both of them impressed me with this one.

**3/4

4. Nonoko & Rika Tatsumi vs. KANNA & Yuka Sakazaki

Kind of like one of those WAVE fanservice matches, but without the barefeet and unclothing.

*1/2

5. Marika Kobashi & Miyu Yamashita vs. Azusa Takigawa & Reika Saiki

Yamashita and Saiki trading kicks is the centerpiece of the match. Takigawa did a great job in standing out, she was hilarious. Very fun tag match.

**3/4

6. Tokyo Princess Cup - Finals: Shoko Nakajima vs. Yuu

This match is gritty and ugly. Yuu hits the sloppiest vertical suplex in the world, but it only adds to the struggle. It felt raw like everything else in this match.

***3/4

Stardom - Queen Tradition 2014 (12/14/2014)

2. Kellie Skater vs. Makoto vs. Miyako Matsumoto

**

3. Kinya Oyanagi & Lin Byron vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Koharu Hinata

I don't know how or why this match was booked on a Stardom card, but I thought everyone did good here, even Kinya Oyanagi, whose gimmick seems to be 'most boring wrestler in the world', with Hinata being the standout. Lin Byron a cute.

**1/2

4. Act Yasukawa & Syuri vs. Takumi Iroha & Reo Hazuki

This is Act's homecoming match and she's brought along Syuri as her special tag partner. Kind of a basic tag match other than the novelty of Syuri wrestling in a Stardom ring. Hazuki running double foot stomping Yasukawa for almost a minute straight was fun.

**

5. Io Shirai, Mayu Iwatani & Yoshiko vs.  Nanae Takahashi, Kairi Hojo & Koguma

Watching this has made me nostalgic for the old Yoshiko. She was a wild beast. Really fun spotfest. The bear cub in blue shorts looked especially impressive.

****

GANBARE☆PRO-WRESTLING - BAD COMMUNICATION 2016 (10/04/2016)

1. Ai Shimizu & Aoi Ishibashi vs. Emi Sakura &「Kotori」

Four of the smartest workers in modern joshi putting together a solid match.

***

2. Keisuke Ishii vs. Yukihiro Abe

***

3. Shuichiro Katsumura vs. Takafumi Ito

Two shooters going at it. Sleek, smooth and hard-hitting. I have no idea who these guys are.

**3/4

4. Shiori Asahi vs. Shinichiro Tominaga

No earthly idea who Shinichiro Tominaga is, which goes for a couple of guys on this card. This match told me everything I need to know about him via a wonderfully-crafted story. Asahi tortured Tominaga in the neat ways that only a student of K-DOJO could, goading him to give it his all and prove himself worthy. Tominaga was once a K-DOJO guy as well and Asahi is obviously the more accomplished of the two so there's a backstory based in reality that they played into. It all culminates into a great finish.

****

5. Madoka & Saki Fujita vs. Bambi & Minoru Fujita

Saki and Minoru were once a married couple, but now they're not. Story of the match. Minoru does a wonderful job as Saki's asshole ex husband, garnering boos from the crowd. This was mostly a comedy match, feel good ending, etc. I need to get more familiar with Bambi.

**3/4

6. No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight: Atsushi Onita, GENTARO, Hideki Hosaka & Osamu Namiguchi vs. Ken Ohka, Masayuki Mitomi, Shota & Yumehito Imanari

The crowd reaction made this match for me, it's a train-wreck, but a very fun one. Korakuen booed everything Onita did and were super supportive of Ohka and his band of indie trash.

***

Kairi Hojo vs. Io Shirai (Stardom, 9/3/2016)

Stardom - 5★STAR GP2016 (9/3/2016)

5★STAR GP Red Stars Block: Kairi Hojo vs. Io Shirai

This is the match where the infamous Ganso Bomb from the apron happens. There’s also solid grappling that takes place. This outing was a major improvement over their January match; more refined and better paced. Then, we get to the spot: dangerous and stupid and it just didn’t come off looking good. Great stuff happening around it, though.

***3/4

Arisa Nakajima vs. Kyoko Kimura (JWP, 10/9/2016)

JWP - Fly High In The 25th Anniversary (10/9/2016)

JWP Openweight Championship: Arisa Nakajima (c) vs. Kyoko Kimura 

This was alright match, never quite reached the level of what I would hope from Arisa and Kyoko. They're definitely capable of better, but we didn't see that from either of them in the two clashes they had during Kimura's retirement run, unfortunately. The limbwork wasn't sold all that well by Nakajima, but at least it played into the finish. Good strikes here too.

**3/4

Hiroyo Matsumoto 10th Anniversary Produce ~ Hiroyo No Dai Ketto (7/31/2016)

2. Hikaru Shida vs.「Kotori」vs. Mayu Iwatani

It's not often that Stardom joshi wrestlers take outside bookings so just seeing Shida hit an enzugiri on Mayu is a once in a lifetime kind of moment. Fun, well-flowing match.

**1/2

5. Aja Kong vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto

This was pure destruction,  just two hosses throwing bombs all over 1stRING, like kaiju fighting over territory in joshi form, which was totally the intention knowing the 'Lady Godzilla' Hiroyo. Ishiro Honda would be proud. There were vile headbutts, ring-shaking suplexes and a giant metal barrel. It was great.

****3/4

BASARA - Vajra 23 ~ Wu (5/13/2016)

4. Heaven Summit Itadaki Block A: Isami Kodaka vs. SAGAT

Dug this. Kodaka's always doing neat little things in his matches, delivering something fresh even when he's wrestling in front of 73 people in the Ice Ribbon dojo. Finish was swift and brutal.

***3/4

5. Heaven Summit Itadaki Block B: Daichi Kazato vs. FUMA

This is treated as a serious contest between two hard-hitting dudes, but ever so often they inject their cartoony gimmicks into their offense. It's bizarre and over-the-top, but they play it straight in a way that just makes it all come together.

***3/4

Kairi Hojo vs. Io Shirai (Stardom, 3/29/2015)

Stardom - The Highest 2015 (3/29/2015)

World of Stardom (vacant): Kairi Hojo vs. Io Shirai

Io and Hojo both wear the wounds of their previous matches in this tournament for the vacate belt, and get right to it, beating the hell out of each other; Io working the arm that was injured earlier on the card. An explosive opening. But then the match takes a sudden detour so Io can get her a moonsault off of the south wall. The match loses focuses from there and the finish fell flat.

**

Stardom - Season 14 Goddesses In Stars 2013 (10/6/2013)

2. Alpha Female vs. Yuhi

Alpha Female is probably my least favorite Stardom gaijin ever. That said, I thought she did good here. Yuhi was just a powder keg of rapid-fire offense. Everything worked out well and they told a good little story.

***

5. Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani vs. Nanae Takahashi & Miho Wakizawa

Thunder Rock vs. Kiss no Sekai! Mayu is wearing her goofy pants and takes a particularly nasty spot when Io is superplexed on top of her. Wacky was on fire!

***3/4

Kenny Omega vs. Ayako Hamada (WAVE, 11/4/2013)

 WAVE - GAMI Libre 6 (11/4/2013)

Kenny Omega vs. Ayako Hamada

This is a match that happened. And it main evented. Wild career Omega has had. Hamada looks strong against the current Bullet Club leader, hitting most of her signature spots. This was a fun and interesting match up.

***