OZ Academy - No End Taboo (12/3/2017)

2. Maya Yukihi vs. Rina Yamashita

**1/4

3. Aoi Kizuki, Kaori Yoneyama, Koharu Hinata & Yumiko Hotta vs. MK4 (AKINO, Kaho Kobayashi, Kakeru Sekiguchi & Sonoko Kato)

***

4. Aja Kong vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto

**

5. Sekigun (Alex Lee, Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka) vs. Hikaru Shida, Moeka Haruhi & Saori Anou

***

6. OZ Academy Openweight Championship: Yoshiko (c) vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki

***1/2

Sendai Girls - Big Show In Osaka (12/2/2017)

3. Heidi Katrina & La Rosa Negra vs. Hana Kimura & Mio Momono

***

4. Aja Kong vs. Cassandra Miyagi

***1/4

5. Chihiro Hashimoto & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Io Shirai & Meiko Satomura

***3/4

6. Sendai Girls Tag Team Championship: DASH Chisako & KAORU (c) vs. Strong Style Rush (Alex Lee & Mika Shirahime)

***1/2

Sendai Girls (11/17/2017)

1. Ami Sato vs. Manami

**1/4

3. Alex Lee, Ami Sato & Hikaru Shida vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto, La Rosa Negra & Mio Momono

***

4. Hana Kimura vs. Mika Shirahime

When I read this only went 4-minutes, I was psyched. They were making all of their offense count, there's hard slaps and head-sweeping kicks and boots, and a shoot headbutt from Hana that sounded disgusting. Hana showed some barbarism in this, she tries to take Shirahime's face off with a Bakatare Sliding Kick, and ends the match with a rough-looking knee strike. 

***1/4

5. Aja Kong & Meiko Satomura vs. Ayako Hamada & Chihiro Hashimoto

Chihiro gets brought back to reality in this match, taking a beating from two legends she has defeated this year. Good struggle, good match.

***1/4

6. Sendai Girls Tag Team Championship: DASH Chisako & KAORU (c) vs. Cassandra Miyagi & Heidi Katrina

***

Sendai Girls - Big Show in Sendai 2017 (9/24/2017)

5. Aasa Maika, Emi Sakura & Hana Kimura vs. Aja Kong, Cassandra Miyagi & Hikaru Shida

***1/2

7. Sendai Girls World Championship: Chihiro Hashimoto (c) vs. Meiko Satomura

***3/4

OZ Academy - Dolphin (9/3/2017)

1. Aja Kong vs. Kaori Yoneyama

***1/4

3. Sekigun (Alex Lee, Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka) vs. MK4 (Kaho Kobayashi, Shoko Sekiguchi & Sonoko Kato)

***1/2

5. Hikaru Shida & Yoshiko vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tsubasa Kuragaki

***

OZ Academy - Summer Soft Breeze (7/16/2017)

1. Aja Kong vs. Hikaru Shida

An uphill battle for Shida, and she had to use whatever openings she could find, and seize the opportunity with shinai strikes and knees to head. It didn't reach the violence of their past encounters, with the blood and what have you, and the double KO ending hurts, but I thought this was otherwise an awesome brawl.

***3/4

2. MK4 (Kaho Kobayashi & Sonoko Kato) vs. Kaori Yoneyama & Yoshiko

Awesome match; loved the double team maneuvers. Yoshiko and Yoneyama had a fun team dynamic, and Sonoko is just the best.

***1/2

3. Manami Toyota vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki

**

4. Sekigun (Alex Lee, Mayumi Ozaki & Yumi Ohka) vs. Aoi Kizuki, Hiroe Nagahama & Rina Yamashita

This was a perfectly fine houseshow trios match. The opening FIP segment was pure sadism; Hiroe is a great bumper. I'm warming up to Alex Lee in Ozakigun.

***

5. AKINO vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto

**

Sendai Girls - Big Show in Niigata (7/15/2017)

4. Aja Kong, Meiko Satomura & Nanae Takahashi vs. Mika Shirahime, Mio Momono & Rin Kadokura

The segments between Satomura and Hime were fantastic. All of the rookie desperation spots and the veteran punishes were great. Kong DEVASTATES Mio with this backdrop.

***3/4

5. Sendai Girls Tag Team Championship: Hikaru Shida & Syuri (c) vs. Cassandra Miyagi & DASH Chisako

Felt like it went longer than it needed to be, but the action never slowed down. This mini Shida-Miyagi rivalry is great. Chisako spent most of the match getting bumped around and worked over, but she makes a surly comeback.

***1/2

6. Sendai Girls World Championship: Hiroyo Matsumoto (c) vs. Chihiro Hashimoto

Chihiro is a sturdy wall of meat. Definitely the weaker of the Chihiro matches from this year. It didn't have the sense of danger that her previous big matches did, and boiled down to an exchange of moves and the two using one another's finisher, and while all of this looked great, there wasn't much else going on here.

***1/4

SEAdLINNNG - Fortissimo (5/24/2017)

1. High Speed: Maruko Nagasaki & Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Mio Momono & Tsukushi

I love these matches. Very fun hai supido.

***1/2

2. Hiiragi Kurumi & Sareee vs. Rin Kadokura & Takumi Iroha

This wasn't connecting with me until the third half and felt like it went on forever. Always great to see Iroha make tape, though.

**1/4

3. Aja Kong & AKINO vs. Nanae Takahashi & Yuki Miyazaki

Nanae is lowkey one of my favorite joshi. I can always expect her to put on a compelling performance, and she takes one hell of a bump. This was a great match from hard-hitting obasan.

***3/4

4. Arisa Nakajima vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto

This was a back-and-forth where all of the moves and counters were well-placed, and it builds into a crushing finish. Arisa's desperation came across well in her facial expressions, and her suplexes were terrific.

****

5. Rina Yamashita vs. Yoshiko

These two are like alternate universe versions of each other, so they make for great rivals. The finish is a lariat war where they're just trading heavy smacks, knocking the bajeezus out of one another. The selling and execution made it one of the more compelling lariat exchanges I've seen in a while; the blood from Rina's mouth splashes across her face in a sweet visual.

****1/2

Sendai Girls (4/6/2017)

1. Tag Team Championship Challenger Decision Tournament, Semi Final: Konami vs. Mika Shirahime

This was an awesome opener with some great close-proximity grappling.

***1/2

2. Tag Team Championship Challenger Decision Tournament, Semi Final: Hana Kimura vs. Mio Momono

This was a good display of rookie fire and desperation. Hana-chan sends Monono half-way across the ring with an awesome diving dropkick for the finish.

***

4. Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Meiko Satomura

The action here was very exciting and had some nice big moves and hits.

****

5. Tag Team Championship Challenger Decision Tournament, Final: Hana Kimura vs. Mika Shirahime

This was an even stronger version of the match they had last month. I like how this feud is developing.

****

6. Sendai Girls World Tag Team Championship: Hikaru Shida & Syuri (c) vs. DASH Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi

This was loads of fun, fast paced and jam-packed with stiff hits and double teams and counters and WEAPONS. Plus the crowd was hot.

****

7. Sendai Girls World Championship: Aja Kong (c) vs. Chihiro Hashimoto

I like how they build into that first German suplex and how desperate Aja gets as she becomes worn down by Chihiro. That finishing stretch was bonkers. Really strong storytelling in this match as Aja puts over Chihiro HUGE.

****3/4

Sendai Girls (3/11/2017)

1. Hana Kimura vs. Mika Shirahime

This progressed nicely into something more than your average rookie opener.

***

3. Hikaru Shida, Alex Lee & Konami vs. Cassandra Miyagi, Big Bang Nicole & Nyra Rose

Cassandra gets a lot of time to shine and show her improvement, and both teams performed cohesively.

***

4. Meiko Satomura vs. Syuri

An action-packed sprint where they traded stiff and fluid holds. I dug those crushing knee drops from Satomura in the opening. The finish was a shocker as Meiko taking a fall always is, what a moment.

***3/4

5. Aja Kong & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. DASH Chisako & Chihiro Hashimoto

Chihiro is a super athlete, Hiroyo & Kong are destructive forces, and DASH is just trying to survive among titans. This has probably one of the heaviest tower of doom spots you will see in women's wrestling. What a main event!

***3/4

DDT - Judgement 2017 ~ DDT 20th Anniversary Box Office (3/20/2017)

3. Shigehiro Irie vs. Mike Bailey

Two of the nicest wrestlers in the world beating the shit out of each other.

***3/4

4. Saki Akai, Meiko Satomura & Shoko Nakajima vs. Aja Kong, Cherry & Miyu Yamashita

There's a lot personality in this match. Of course Meiko and Miyu facing off was awesome and post-match between the two was heated.

***1/2

5. Yoshihiro Takayama & Dick Togo vs. KUDO & Shungo Oyama

This was some kind of old man nostalgia fest, I guess. I have no idea who Oyama is, but perusing his wiki I learned he's married to an 80s idol. KUDO is always cool.

**1/2

6. Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship - Anal Explosion Death Match: Danshoku Dino vs. Joey Ryan

Donald Trump informs the crowd that this match will take place under 'anal explosion death match' rules as per DDT's new deal with Bakky Visual Planning. Standard Dino singles match with exposed asses. It's only after that match that an anus actually explodes.

*

7. KO-D Tag Team Championship: Masakatsu Funaki & Yukio Sakaguchi (c) vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Tetsuya Endo

This was fast-paced and hard-hitting and Endo did his great flippy stuff.

***1/2

8. Kou Shibusawa 35th Anniversary “Nobunaga’s Ambition ~Our Warring States~” Sengoku Warlords Match: Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Sanshiro Takagi), Shingen Takeda (Keiji Muto) & Yukimura Sanada (Isami Kodaka) (w/ Matsu-hime (Kimika Tokuta)) vs. Katsuie Shibata (Daisuke Sekimoto), Kenshin Uesugi (Jun Akiyama) & Nobunaga Oda (Kota Ibushi) (w/ Oichi (Mai Iriya))

This sounds like the craziest cluster-fucking shit ever on paper, but they mostly wrestled a straight match, only they were wearing samurai wearing armor.

***1/2

9. DDT Extreme Championship - Sekichu Presents Hardcore Match: Jun Kasai (c) vs. Daisuke Sasaki

Kasai crushes his nose in one spot so when he does his signature nose blowing taunt, there's a cloud of red. That was a cool visual. This was good fun, spot after spot of violent and dangerous stunts.

****

10. KO-D Openweight Championship: HARASHIMA (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita

Takeshita makes one hell of a comeback, using signature moves from past opponents, showcasing his growth while overcoming HARASHIMA. This built up well to a strong finale.

***3/4

SEAdLINNNG - Integral-d (1/26/2017)

4. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Sareee vs. Aja Kong & Yoshiko

Sareee came into this thing looking for a fight with her sights set on Yoshiko, and they do some great feuding that builds up to an explosive climax. A dormant anger from Yoshiko provoked and unleashed! I loved the chaos of the finale; a commotion mowing through the crowd as talents come rushing in to break up the brawl. Easily one of the best non-finishes I've ever seen.

****3/4

5. Arisa Nakajima vs. Nanae Takahashi

This was a big match, one that gradually builds over close to 30 minutes. Arisa was working hard, her execution was pristine and she showed a lot of heart. This was billed as her rebirth and it felt like it. I look forward to what she'll do as a member of SEAdLINNNG.

****

Ice Ribbon - New Ice Ribbon #779 ~ New Year Yokohama Ribbon 2017 (1/9/2017)

1. Maika Ozaki & Tequila Saya vs. Maruko Nagasaki & Matsuya Uno

Maruko started incorporating an evasive roll into her moveset and it has reshaped her as a performer, she's finding creative ways to implement it.

***

3. Manami Toyota vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Tsukushi

Cute match, you could tell that they were enjoying themselves and each other out there. Fujimoto takes a scary fall during an Ocean Cyclone-device dropkick. God bless this tiny woman.

**3/4

4. Hiiragi Kurumi vs. Kyuuri

This match was all Kurumi, she murders Kyuuri with a barrage of power moves. I don't think I've ever seen her hit the Go Flasher before so that was a first.

***1/4

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

Sendai Girls (1/9/2017)

1. Konami & Mio Momono vs. Mika Shirahime & Syuri

***

2. Cassandra Miyagi vs. Hikaru Shida

Miyagi is like a slim Dump Matsumoto. She's beginning to understand what works for her persona. Shida wasn't called the "Comical Ace" in WAVE for nothing. She plays off of gimmick wrestlers to perfection (the match with Eiger being another good example). This was loads of fun and the crowd was really into it.

***1/4

4. Command Bolshoi & Kyoko Kimura vs. DASH Chisako & KAORU

There's some really good, methodical and aggressive heel work from Kyoko in this match, she can be really good in control segments where she's dominating. DASH's bra becomes exposed during a cattle mutilation! The eventual comeback felt hard fought and well-deserved.

***3/4

5. Sendai Girls World Championship: Chihiro Hashimoto (c) vs. Aja Kong

This was a great main event. Hashimoto establishes her dominance with her grappling ability at the start, so Aja has to lull the champion into her domain with outside brawling. This sets the tone of the match. It's all about Aja using her craft to escape Hashimoto's superior grappling and 25-inch thighs.

****