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

***

Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Cassandra Miyagi (Sendai Girls, 11/5/2017)

Sendai Girls (11/5/2017)

Sendai Girls World Championship: Chihiro Hashimoto (c) vs. Cassandra Miyagi

I know these two are capable of a much grander championship match, but this was good, an improvement over the match they had in Korakuen last year. They've developed better chemistry. Cassandra was using kicks and armbars to do damage, and Chihiro was making her comebacks with power moves and sentons. I liked the tombstone tease early in the match and the way Chihiro counters it. Good match, they'll have a great one some day.

***1/2

WAVE - Weekday WAVE Vol. 108 (6/22/2017)

1. ASUKA vs. Mika Iida

Damn, this was good. IIda was either legimately hurting or doing a great job selling -- in any case, she did a fantastic job putting over ASUKA. They were roughhousing and stiffing the hell out of each other.

***3/4

2. Aoi Kizuki, Hiroe Nagahama & Moeka Haruhi vs. Cherry, Kaori Yoneyama & Misaki Ohata

**3/4

3. Isami Kodaka vs. Keisuke Goto

Goto's turning into a solid wrestler, and he seems easy to work off of. He actually had Kodaka's number towards the end, but the veteran caught him lacking.

***

5. Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Rina Yamashita

Solid heavyweight showdown. I didn't think it reached that 'next level', but they were trading some hard smacks.

***

6. 2 out of 3 Falls: Kyuuri & Mio Momono vs. Over Sun (Yuki Miyazaki & Yumi Ohka)

Enjoyed this a lot, Over Sun are such a fun team.

***1/4

7. Hikaru Shida vs. Ryo Mizunami

What an awesome match, it breezes through those 20 minutes. Shida was working over Mizunami in brutal fashion -- seriously, the outside brawl was one of the best I've seen this year. Those chair-punts to the face of Mizunami were wicked. I really like how Shida has been utilizing those knee strikes lately, they look and sound amazing. Mizunami was struggling to survive, picking her spots when she could and making it count. Fantastic match.

****1/2

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

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

Sendai Girls (6/10/2017)

1. Mika Shirahime vs. Mio Momono

Shirahime, man, she's so good at conveying her frustration! The hits looked great here. Monono was a crafty little pink rookie. Great opener.

***1/2

2. Aiger & Alex Lee vs. Aja Kong & Big Bang Nicole

*

3. Cassandra Miyagi, DASH Chisako & Heidi Katrina vs. Chikayo Nagashima, KAORU & Nyla Rose

**

4. Sendai Girls Tag Team Championship: Hikaru Shida & Syuri (c) vs. Hana Kimura & Meiko Satomura

Solid semi-main, highlighted by the awesome strike exchanges between Syuri and Satomura. Those two have such great strikes. Hana-chan was also a welcome addition to this match!

***1/2

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

Hiroyo works over Chihiro's neck throughout, hitting a gruesome Gin and Tonic, and it leads to an amazing finishing stretch where the champion can't maintain the bridge of her German suplex due to the damage done to her neck. The selling was good; the pacing of the match feels smooth with an organic escalation, and Chihiro is just a sight to behold! This was an awesome clash of titans! 

****1/2

WAVE - JOSHIPRO Festival ~ Love and Kindness and Strong Heart ~ (3/21/2017)

1. Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Ryo Mizunami

***1/4

2. 48 Count Match: Cherry vs. Maya Yukihi

**1/4

3. ERINA vs. Kagetsu

**1/2

4. Hiroe Nagahama vs. Natsumi Maki

**

5. Fairy Nipponbashi vs. Mika Shirahime

**1/4

6. SAKI vs. Sareee

***

7. Rin Kadokura vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto

***

8. Misaki Ohata vs. Yoshiko

****

9. Sumire Natsu vs. Takumi Iroha

***3/4

10. Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Rina Yamashita

***3/4

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

Stardom - Io Shirai 10th Anniversary Show ～ＩＯＩＯ～ (3/9/2017)

2. HZK vs. Kagetsu vs. Kris Wolf

This was proper high speed; an improvement over the similar Nagoya trio. This turns into a de facto handicap match with HZK looking strong fending for herself.

***

3. Midnight Angel & Minoru Suzuki vs Black Midnight Devil & KAI

This was a fun mesh of wacky gimmicks.

***

4. Toni Storm vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto

There were some bombs thrown at the end, including a nice German suplex from Storm, but overall I didn't get much from this.

**1/4

5. Kairi Hojo, Yoko Bito & Konami vs. Hiromi Mimura, Aoi Kizuki & Jungle Kyona

Fun trios. The draw here is obviously Aoi Kizuki making her Stardom debut. She looked good and fit in well with the rest of the girls.

***

6. Io Shirai & Meiko Satomura vs. Mayu Iwatani & Chihiro Hashimoto

My God, this was an excellent main event. Chihiro was looking very strong against Io, Mayu gets mauled by gruesome kicks and suplexes. The energy, the sequences and the drama here are absolutely grand.

****3/4

Meiko Satomura vs. Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls, 10/16/2016)

Sendai Girls - 10th Anniversary Show ~ Women's Wrestling Big Show In Sendai (10/16/2016)

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

Mesmerizing pacing, there's a sense of urgency and danger that makes every movement feel important, like a human chess game. You know when Chihiro starts hitting those Germans that this can end at any second, it's such a unique quality to Chihiro's big matches. Incredible generational struggle.

****3/4

Stardom - Premium Star Wars in Nagoya (6/5/2016)

4. Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Jungle Kyona

Nagoya Congress Center Event Hall is an immersive venue. This was great; huge hip attacks, open-handed slaps and heavy grappling between burly young lions.

***3/4

5. High Speed Championship: Mayu Iwatani (c) vs. Kagetsu

The action was fast, the kicks were swift and precise, and all of the counters they did were really fluid. Mayu gives Kagetsu a taste of her own medicine with a traffic sign to the head. It was a satisfying end to this chapter of their feud.

***1/2

6. Io Shirai & Kairi Hojo vs. Meiko Satomura & Mika Iwata

Iwata's hair goes wild as the match progresses, it's great. Hojo's never-ending quest to prove herself to Satomura turned up the heat in Nagoya. The finishing run was explosive, what a way to cap off the show.

****1/2

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.

****