Stardom - 5★STAR GP2017 x Champions (9/23/2017)

5. Goddesses of Stardom Championship: Oedo Tai (Hana Kimura & Kagetsu) (c) vs. Queen's Quest (Io Shirai & Viper)

This was really fun with Oedo Tai heeling it up and a great peril segment from Io.

***1/2

6. Wonder of Stardom Championship: Mayu Iwatani (c) vs. Yoko Bito

Mayu's a great bully, always enjoy her workover segments. She was stomping Bito's head and hitting these nasty kicks. I thought this was an improvement over the Stardom x Stardom match. They kept things tight and focused.

***1/2

HZK & Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani & Momo Watanabe (Stardom, 11/20/2016)

Stardom - Goddesses of Stars: Winter Darkness Road (11/20/2016)

HZK & Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani & Momo Watanabe

This had massive heat. Segments between Mayu and Io were obviously good, but I liked how the match wasn't just about them. This was also HZK's return from hiatus, and she was better than ever, and worked very well with Momo. 

****

BASARA - Vajra 48 ~Isami Kodaka 15th Anniversary~ (10/1/2017)

5. Ryota Nakatsu vs. Yuko Miyamoto

Seems the CyberAgent money has allowed DDT to use copyrighted songs. This was a decent match... both of these guys are still learning. Yuko is a great death match wrestler, but he's just not as engaging working normal singles matches.

**1/4

6. IRON PRIEST (FUMA & Yusuke Kubo) & HUB vs. Ryuichi Sekine, Yuji Hino & Yasu Urano

**3/4

7. Union MAX Championship: Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi (c) vs. Isami Kodaka

This was lackluster for a main event celebrating Kodaka's 15th anniversary. Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi exposed himself as a mediocre worker with this reign. He has no depth as a wrestler, and unfortunately Kodaka couldn't drag much out of him.

**3/4

Isami Kodaka vs. HARASHIMA (DDT, 3/21/2016)

DDT - Judgement 2016 ~ DDT 19th Anniversary Show (3/21/2016)

KO-D Openweight Championship: Isami Kodaka (c) vs. HARASHIMA

I remember being disappointed in this match when I first saw it, and it does have its flaws (HARASHIMA's spotty leg selling, Kodaka's awkwardness), but it's also a lot of fun. They were trading stiff strikes, there were clever counterattacks -- it felt like a match where two guys just went out there and experimented. The ending sequence with the sweep into the Somato was fucking wicked.

***1/4

DNA - FIGHTING GIG 34 ~ Starting Over ~ (7/4/2017)

1. Diego & Rekka vs. Cody Hall & Mike Bailey

***3/4

2. Gran MilliMeters (Daiki Shimomura & Nobuhiro Shimatani) vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Shiro Koshinaka

***1/4

4. MAO vs. Tetsuya Endo

ＭＡＯ

***1/2

7. Shunma Katsumata vs. Yuki Ueno

Shunma with his new and improved look has potential to be a future top guy. He's a maniac bumper as well. Showcasing Yuki was the story of the match.

***1/2

DDT - Who's Gonna Top? DDT Dramatic General Election 2017 ~ Last Request Special! (9/24/2017)

6. HARASHIMA vs. KUDO

Thank God Yasu Urano was booked on this show. He's the best HARASHIMA cheerleader. This was a 'Greatest Hits' kind of match where they were hitting their signature sequences and spots. I didn't feel there was a strong narrative hook to make this stand out from their most recent matches, but the physicality was there -- they were beating the shit out of each other. Cute match.

***3/4

7. KO-D Openweight Championship / DDT Extreme Championship / Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship: Daisuke Sasaki (c) [DDT] vs. Ken Ohka (c) [Independent] vs. Konosuke Takeshita (c) [KO-D]

This is a bizarre match-up, I didn't know what to expect from it, but it turned out to be a wild fucking ride. Takeshita looked like a fucking wrecking machine in this match, his offense had a ton of velocity behind it. Sasaki is a maestro, and Ohka looked great whenever he got his time to shine. Fun all around.

***3/4

Ice Ribbon - #832 ~ ICE in WONDERLAND 2017 (8/27/2017)

2. Asahi vs. Manami Toyota

This was Asahi's debut and she's against Manami Toyota! Asahi's peers were surrounding the ring, cheering her on, the crowd was super into it.

***1/2

5. Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) vs. Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami)

****3/4

6. Elimination: Maruko Nagasaki, Matsuya Uno, Satsuki Totoro & Tequila Saya vs. Team DATE (Hana DATE, Karen DATE, Nao DATE & Nori DATE)

There was a lot of action here and it didn't spiral out of control like the match in Yokohama. Hana DATE was injured so everyone swarmed her. The Maruko-Nori ending was had believable near-falls and proper escalation. Great match. 

****1/4

7. ICE×∞ Championship: Risa Sera (c) vs. Maya Yukihi

This caught me by surprise -- I didn't know Maya-obachan had it in her. Her leg work was great and she had all of these clever counters to Sera's offense. Sera's comebacks were kind of selling-free, but her offense looked strong and much better than it has looked in past defenses.

****1/2