Ice Ribbon - #868 ~ Yokohama Ribbon 2018 ~Febuary~ (2/24/2018)

1. Hamuko Hoshi & Satsuki Totoro vs. Ibuki Hoshi & Karen DATE

Awesome opener. Hamuko was doing some questionable stuff, but overall the match was great. Karen has improved a lot, her kicks looked great.

***

2. Hana DATE vs. Nao DATE

This was quite good, a hell of a lot better than I expected from a Team DATE singles match. They both have similar yet very difference movesets, I thought they were doing some interesting things.

**1/2

3. Mabudachi❤Chu2byo卍卍 (Kyuuri & Maruko Nagasaki) vs. Matsuya Uno & Tequila Saya

This was loads of fun. Great work from both teams.

***

4. Triangle Ribbon Championship: Tsukasa Fujimoto (c) vs. Hideki Suzuki vs. Miyako Matsumoto

This was gold, such an amazingly well-worked comedy match. Probably the best Miyako Matsumoto match I've ever seen too.

***3/4

5. Mika Iida vs. Tsukushi

This didn't exactly have the same energy as their Catch the WAVE match a couple of years ago, but it was solid, with exciting counters and exchanges, and the finishing run was hot.

***

6. Six Woman Tag Team Tournament - First Round: Akane Fujita, Hiragi Kurumi & Mochi Miyagi vs. Azure Revolution (Maya Yukihi & Risa Sera) & Giulia

Awesome trios match to close the show. Dug the exchanges between Maya-obachan and Kurumi, hoping for a future title match between the two!

***1/4

Tokyo Joshi Pro - Let's Go! Go! If You Go! When You Go! If You Get Lost Just Go to Itabashi! (3/21/2018)

3. Yuu vs. Yuki Kamifuku

The crowd really gets a kick out of Kamifuku's poorly delivered comedy, I don't get it, but whatever helps her get over.

**

4. Dragon Bombers (Rika Tatsumi & Maho Kurone) vs. Reika Saiki & Shoko Nakajima

Solid action in this match. Reika did a couple of cool spots, she muscles through Maho's biting, and double suplexes the Dragon Bombers. Also dug the set-up for Maho's sliding German.

**3/4

5. Yuka Sakazaki vs. Hyper Misao

I don't know Japanese so I don't understand what's happening in the promos, but for some reason the match could only be won by a 30-count countout. It ends in a draw, and restarts with 1 count pinfall rules, and that leads to an amazing "finishing stretch". Absolutely brilliant comedy match with very cute performances.

****

6. TOKYO Princess Tag Team Championship: NEO Biishiki-gun (Saki-sama & Azusa Christie) (c) vs. Miyu Yamashita & Marika Kobashi

Good main event, things moved rather quickly and Azusa looked amazing. Even though the tag belts are on the line, they weren't exactly going all out here and it basically served as just another advancement of the Marika-Saki-sama feud.

***

SEAdLINNNG - Shin-Kiba 2nd NIGHT (2/9/2018)

1. Akane Fujita vs. Hiroe Nagahama

Actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Nagahama is still a hopeless wrestler, though.

**1/4

3. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Misaki Ohata

Best Friends vs. Seven Star Sisters! Arisa and Ohata did some wicked stuff to each other, and Hiroyo had a couple of cool moments as well. This ruled.

***3/4

4. Hamuko Hoshi, Ryo Mizunami & Yoshiko vs. Mio Momono, Rina Yamashita & Saki Akai

This was a very fun main event. I was dreading this match when I saw Saki Akai was involved, but she actually did good this time around.

***

Sareee vs. Mio Momono (Diana, 2/4/2018)

Diana (2/4/2018)

Sareee vs. Mio Momono 

Momo can be an annoying shit so it was great to see Sareee rough her up a bit. The first half of this was amazing, but it starts to lose steam as it unfolds. Dug the wheelbarrow German suplex counter, though. Solid stuff, nothing remarkable.

**3/4

Emi Sakura vs. Mitsuru Konno (Gatoh Move, 1/14/2018)

Gatoh Move - Japan Tour・335 (1/14/2018)

Emi Sakura vs. Mitsuru Konno

This was good. Man, Konno was exuding intensity from the hair down. Pissed-off Konno! I don't know what Emi was doing in this match, she was corpsing and performing sloppily, but somehow I feel it worked. It only pushed Konno to fight harder to be taken seriously. They got creative with some of the spots and counters, and there was a good deal of heat. Good stuff.

***1/2

Stardom - Grows Up Stars 2018 (3/4/2018)

1. Future of Stardom Championship Tournament - First Round: Hanan vs. Starlight Kid

This was excellent, a heated battle between juniors where the high stakes had the crowd engaged. Hanan hit an awesome superkick and I liked her use of the Gedo Clutch. SLK fought harder than usual as well.

***1/4

2. Future of Stardom Championship Tournament - First Round: AZM vs. Ruaka

Another great match in this tournament, surprisingly physical, and there was a good amount of hate between them too. Simple, effective pro wrestling.

***1/2

3. Nao Yamaguchi vs. Shiki Shibusawa

Solid debut for Nao, the crowd participation really added to it. Nao maneuvers around the ring like a natural, I was surprised by her confidence. She did a couple of shoulder tackles, a body slam and an ax bomber.

**1/2

5. Io Shirai vs. Xia Brookside

A solid match where Xia got a lot of shine, looking strong against Io. After the match, Xia is welcomed to the Stardom roster by Io!

**3/4

6. Bea Priestley & Toni Storm vs. Queen's Quest (HZK & Momo Watanabe)

Solid - Bea & Toni made for an interesting team.

**1/2

7. Jungle Kyona, Mayu Iwatani & Tam Nakano vs. Oedo Tai (Hana Kimura, Kagetsu & Sumire Natsu)

This was a spectacular trios match, amazing blend of action and character work, and a packed Shin-Kiba 1stRING was the perfect setting for it. Unreal atmosphere. Tamu gave an amazing performance as the face-in-peril, Oedo Tai were ruthless heels, and I loved the finale between Tamu and Sumire.

****1/4

Stardom - Grows Up Stars 2018 (3/3/2018)

1. Natsuko Tora vs. Ruaka

This was surprisingly competitive. I thought both performers looked great. Ruaka held her own against Tora.

**1/4

4. Bea Priestley, Toni Storm & Xia Brookside vs. Oedo Tai (Hana Kimura, Kagetsu & Sumire Natsu)

Good 20-minute timeout draw. Where this match shines most are the Kagetsu-Toni interactions, there's dueling limb work between them that was done well. I'm really interested in a potential match between the two.

***

5. Jungle Kyona, Mayu Iwatani, Starlight Kid & Tam Nakano vs. Queen's Quest (AZM, HZK, Io Shirai & Momo Watanabe)

Dug this, really solid house show main event. The Io-Tam segment was a standout for me, I would love to see a feud between them in the future. Starlight and AZM also had a great sequence towards the closer. Solid work.

***

DDT - D-Ou Grand Prix 2018 in Shinjuku (1/5/2018)

2. D-Ou Grand Prix 2018 Block B: Kazusada Higuchi vs. Yukio Sakaguchi

Dug how Sakaguchi fought with a sense of urgency, relentless in keeping the big man down. Higuchi is a wonderful seller. This was basically an extended squash match and an awesome one.

***1/2

3. D-Ou Grand Prix 2018 Block A: Masahiro Takanashi vs. Tetsuya Endo

Thought some of the counters and set-ups here looked contrived, but credit for creativity. Endo stooping to Masa's squirmy tactics was pretty great.

**1/2

4. D-Ou Grand Prix 2018 Block B: Akito vs. Daisuke Sasaki

Second match in a row with a referee bump. This was a solid technical wrestling contest - good limb targeting and selling. These two have great chemistry together as seen in some of their previous encounters.

***

5. D-Ou Grand Prix 2018 Block A: HARASHIMA vs. Keisuke Ishii

This was an intense and competitive contest with exciting counters and sequences, and a brutal finish. Good stuff from both men.

****

6. D-Ou Grand Prix 2018 Block B: Mike Bailey vs. Shuji Ishikawa

The size difference here is striking, Bailey looks like a video game protagonist going up against the massive final boss. This ruled. Ishikawa was a total behemoth, and Bailey had to hit hard and fast to knock him down.

****1/4

7. D-Ou Grand Prix 2018 Block A: Jiro “Ikemen“ Kuroshio vs. Konosuke Takeshita

Super boring.

*

OZ Academy - Women's Disorder (2/18/2018)

1. Kakeru Sekiguchi vs. Maya Yukihi

Great opener where Maya-obachan is dominating while oozing with confidence. Kakeru's offense could've looked better, fortunately she didn't get much.

***

2. Sekigun (Alex Lee, Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka) vs. Aoi Kizuki, Rina Yamashita & Tsubasa Kuragaki

The usual OZ sekigun-trios match. I found it to be enjoyable.

**1/2

3. Kyusei Sakura Hirota vs. Sonoko Kato

This was amazing. Hirota busted out some new material against Kato that I thought was gold and Kato played to it well. The "action" wasn't too bad either.

***3/4

4. Aja Kong & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Hikaru Shida & Kaori Yoneyama

Solid match, there's some comedy mixed in with the action that I enjoyed. Probably went on longer than it needed to be.

**3/4

5. OZ Academy Openweight Championship: Yoshiko (c) vs. AKINO

This bored the crap out of me, honestly. It was dull and uninspired; nothing exciting. It's only when the sekigun starts wrecking havoc after MIO is inadvertently attacked that things get interesting, but by then I was out of the match.

bad