BASARA - 35.5 (5/12/2017)

1. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block A: Best Stretchman V3 vs. Takato Nakano

DUD

2. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block B: Ryu Gouma vs. Trans-Am ★ Hiroshi

Gouma worked the leg a bit, Hiroshi promptly made his comeback, match over. Gouma pulling out an iPad was interesting, I guess.

**

3. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block B: FUMA vs. SAGAT

Decent back and forth.

**1/2

4. Ryuichi Sekine & Takumi Tsukamoto vs. Fuminori Abe & Tatsuhiko Yoshino

*1/2

5. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block A: Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi vs. Yusuke Kubo

Yusuke Kubo moves like he's suffered a stroke these days... Ryuichi wasn't giving anything either. Another lifeless match.

*

6. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block B: Isami Kodaka vs. Ryota Nakatsu

Kodaka is the only wrestler who gave a damn on this show and he brings out the best in Nakatsu, who wasn't giving off the strongest performance in the early going. The strike exchanges were crisp and enjoyable. Kodaka has been disappointing me lately, but this was good. He is great when he sticks to what he's good at. MOTN, for what its worth.

***1/2

Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. Yapper Man #1 & Yapper Man #2 (Michinoku Pro, 4/15/2017)

Michinoku Pro - Tokyo Conference 2017 Vol. 2 ~ Zenshin Zenrei ~ (4/15/2017)

MPW Tohoku Tag Team Championship / UWA World Tag Team Championship: Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (c) vs. Yapper Man #1 & Yapper Man #2

Lots of ass and crotch exposure from the Yapper Men in this match, which made for an intriguing viewing experience. Hidaka is always an interesting wrestler to watch, and the Yapper dudes were chaining together awesome combos. A very fun indie grime tag match that starts slow and builds into a crazy climax.

****

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

Stardom - Shining Stars 2017 (6/11/2017)

3. Hiromi Mimura & Konami vs. Rebel & Shanna

**1/4

4. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora

**1/2

5. Wonder of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani (c) vs. Hana Kimura

***1/2

6. HZK vs. Io Shirai

***

Ice Ribbon - #805 ~ Ryogoku KFC Hall #2 (5/28/2017)

1. Maruko Nagasaki & Matsuya Uno vs. TeamDATE (Hana DATE & Nori DATE)

**1/4

2. 235 vs. Cherry

**1/2

3. Karen DATE vs. Miyako Matsumoto

*

4. Maya Yukihi & Nao DATE vs. Satsuki Totoro & Tequila Saya

**

5. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs. GEKOKUJyou (Kyuuri & Maika Ozaki)

Oh man, GEKOKU were getting the shit beaten out of them in this one. Arisa was a stampede, elbowing and kneeing and suplexing everything in her path. Tsukasa and Kyuuri have this submission exchange that I liked. Maika took some good bumps. Great match.

****

6. International Ribbon Tag Team Championship: This is Ice Ribbon (Hiiragi Kurumi & Tsukushi) (c) vs. Lovely Butchers (Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Miyagi)

***3/4

7. ICE×∞ Championship - Hardcore Match: Risa Sera (c) vs. Akane Fujita

no

OZ Academy - Disorder (5/14/2017)

1. Aja Kong, Syuri & Yoshiko vs. Sekigun (Alex Lee, Maya Yukihi & Yumi Ohka)

**3/4

2. AKINO & Aoi Kizuki vs. MK4 (Kaho Kobayashi & Sonoko Kato)

***1/4

3. Manami Toyota vs. Mima Shimoda

no

4. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Rina Yamashita & Tsubasa Kuragaki

**1/2

5. OZ Academy Openweight Championship #1 Contendership (Special Referee: POLICE): Hikaru Shida vs. Mayumi Ozaki

***

NOAH - Navigation with Breeze 2017 (5/27/2017)

1. Rionne Fujiwara vs. Takashi Sugiura

49-second Sugiura squash. This is how you book Rionne Fujiwara.

***

2. Hi69, Hitoshi Kumano, Mohammed Yone & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. RATEL'S (Tadasuke & YO-HEY), Akitoshi Saito & Masa Kitamiya

**

3. Atsushi Kotoge vs. Kaito Kiyomiya

I'm not feeling Kotoge's new tights, the early 2000s CZW trainee gear was better. Decent showcase for both of these guys.

***

4. Kenou vs. Taiji Ishimori

Kenou does a crazy diving stomp off of the 'entrance gate' and wins via countout before things get going.

*

5. Daisuke Harada vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima

 Harada was a little prick here, getting the sucker punch as Nakajima is making his entrance and using the Heavyweight Champion's own signature turnbuckle punt against him. This was a great, fast-paced clash with some heat thrown in.

***1/2

6. Maybach Taniguchi vs. Randy Reign

This was an entertaining big man match, they did some stuff on the apron and had a chaotic brawl on the outside. This card has a lot of singles matches and this one did a good job standing out.

**1/2

7. Cody Hall vs. Naomichi Marufuji

It's hard to take Cody Hall seriously as threat when he was the recipient of a thousand Rainmakers during his New Japan run. There wasn't much to this, but Cody does an amazing sell job of Marufuji's kicks and jumping knee strikes, perhaps too amazing for a 6'9 monster.

**

8. Brian Cage vs. Go Shiozaki

This match did its job in establishing who the debuting Brian Cage is as a wrestler, and he showed a range of moves that set him apart from the other gaijin brutes on this card. Shiozaki put on a decent showing, but you could sense that his heart wasn't in it. Probably isn't happy doing the job to gaijin of the month.

***1/2

9. GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: Hajime Ohara (c) vs. HAYATA

HAYATA was over in front of this Osaka crowd since he's an ex-Osaka Pro guy, and they were into his comebacks, but I couldn't help but feel that there was something missing. Ohara was playing the spoiler, aggressively working the back. This was fine; it never reached that next level.

***1/4