.STAP

So do I. The veterans are not just hanging around, they're the backbone of the company. Pretty bizzare thing to say. As for Kato's two reigns, I found them exciting. It told a story of struggle and Kato is the ultimate underdog. After winning the first singles title of her 20-year career in a grueling 58-minute elimination match, she immediately had to defend against Mio Shirai, who had previously pinned her in just 6 seconds, there was even a callback to that in this improtu match. The feud against sekigun continued with Yumi Ohka and its newest member Arisa Nakajima who had the help of a retired Mio as the bias official. Then there's the generational shift that has been slowing building with Hiroyo at its forefront and a motivated Dynamite Kansai that she has to contend with, on top a revenge-driven Mayumi Ozaki throwing her weight around. There are so many layers to the story, it was great.

Sonoko Kato's reign was great. What am I even reading?

Yoshiko has saved joshi. I knew she could do it.

http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv289129285?ref=sharetw Their recent show will air on nicopro on the 11th.

I can't say I would be too surprised if this is at least partially true, Nanae seems to have an old school carny mindset. Footage clearly shows Act shooting first, regardless.

Yes, Act's friends are Hojo and a bunch of gaijin and rookies who don't know any better. Io and Mayu are Team Yoshiko.

Wasn't that basically Kyoko Kimura's retirement show? Io's anniversary will probably have some outside talent.

The very video evidence that shows Act shooting first and initiating the incident. I agree with Hoope that there is no right party -- to an extent, I still think Act should have never tried to start a shoot to begin with. She was the senior in this situation, she should have known better.

Yeah, the gaijin are the only ones who show her any kind of support and take pictures with her, not so much the native roster.

Last year OZ had the added boost of two retirements and an anniversary show at Korakuen, this recent number isn't all that different than what they normally get, just 200 less. Their year-end show in 2015 (non-retirement) drew 750 with with Kato/Ohka, Ozaki/Bolshoi and Yoneyama & Tsubasa/MK4 on a Sunday. Maybe a portion of their fans would rather see older women main eventing instead of 4 young freelancers. Just give Yumi Ohka the belt.

Yoshiko was never 'forgiven' because she did nothing wrong. Io, Mayu and Hiroyo literally begged her to not retire, Suwama told her to not give in and stay strong, and I think they would know more about the situation than any of us would. Mayu still tweets Yoshiko publicly and no one is crying about it. Most fans know she did nothing wrong. Moreover, I haven't seen any of the Stardom girls (other than Fuka) talk to or even take pictures with Act since she left Stardom and she has attended several of their several shows. So we have one party who is universally loved and booked everywhere and another who is shunned by the roster, speaks volumes about who is in the wrong.

Act clearly shot first placing Yoshiko in a position where she had to defend herself. She is not blameless and certainly no victim. Yoshiko's reaction may have been over the top, but you mess with the bull, you get the horns, etc.

Yoshiko has been training with Nanae and the SEI☆ZA girls for a while. She's ready for this. I kind of get a feeling that Arisa will join SEAdLINNNG. She is very close with them. Yoshiko has done absolutely nothing wrong.

They've been feuding in WAVE and Ice Ribbon for 2 years. Makes sense.

Sumie Sakai being booked in Stardom and wrestling in a WOH shirt probably means they have already established something. The only good that comes from Stardom working with WOH is that WOH won't be showing up on SEAdLINNNG cards anymore.

I was specifically talking about the booking, not the match itself. I'm sure it will be a good match, but it is a recycled filler title defense unless Viper is winning the belt here, which would be pretty shocking.

So how about Rossy going with Io/Viper again? This looks to be a boring month for Stardom esp. with top prospect Hana out.

I don't hate Ice Ribbon at all, Kevin. I love Ice Ribbon. It's just super obvious that they padded the number, even their own websites shows that three sections of the arena weren't sold out the day of the event: http://iceribbon.com/news_detail.php?id=1129 [Tickets on the day fee] front row: sold out special ringside seat: sold out Ringside seat: 6000 yen reserved seat A: 5000 yen seats B: 4000 yen I'm not the only person to point this out either. It is what it is. Whatever helps Neoplus fill the building. I hardly consider that an actual draw, though. I actually question last year's RIBBONMANIA number too in retrospect. Neko wasn't all that big of a name for her retirement to draw and you can't convince me that 1000 people paid to see Aoi Kizuki in a main event.

Insanely padded out number. How many of those were paying customers?

I follow joshi numbers closely and everything I have said in regards to attendance figures has proof backing it. I would never just make shit up. This goes back to our discussion about Iroha freelancing as a rookie and you using the Shirai sisters as an example of freelancing rookies when they were actually getting booked by MAKEHAN from their debut before they formed Triple Tails. You obviously do not have much knowledge of the medium. You're responding like a mark because you think I am insulting Ice Ribbon when I am actually a fan of the company and have been for years. I'm allowed to critique a company's booking as a fan. The Stardom vs. Senjo tournament show claimed 1480, which is the biggest number Stardom had done in 3 years. Then there was the show with Mayu/Meiko, Io/Sachiko & Hojo/Iwata that did 1000+ as well as the ones you mentioned. The Satomaru/Senjo angle helped Stardom out a lot last year in drawing and match quality. The Korakuen numbers took a noticeably dive whenever Satomaru wasn't booked on the shows. The Act/Yoshiko had a heated build that may or may not have been a shoot. The contract signing taking place at the start of the match was due to Act missing the initially signing due to sickness which peeved Yoshiko who spoke out against Act making "excuses" for missing so many shows. On top of that they are former stablemates so there is already an established history between. I'm not sure what we're even arguing at this point, but the Yuuka/Sera feud was definitely heated. It had a great build. Maya is one of the more popular Ice Ribbon wrestlers, so any high-profile singles match she is in is a drawing point (she is facing Nanae at RIBBONMANIA for example), and also this is an attractive woman who wears black and whips people in her Ozakigun persona. It's going to draw.

@Kevin Wilson Hypothetical event attendances? I didn't want to have to go through the effort of breaking out the numbers, but since Mr. Wilson wants to be combative.. Ice Ribbon ran Shinjuku FACE last year, they drew 365 with two title matches. SEAdLINNNG outdrew that this year with Big Match Veda Scott in their semi-main event: 399. You want more side-by-side comparisons? When Ice Ribbon decided to run multiple Korakuen events last year, they drew: 522 (3/12/2015), 748 (6/24/2015), 597 (7/29/2015), a family of 4 (8/17/2015), 599 (8/30/2015), 522 (10/17/2015) and 1079 (12/31/2015 * biggest Ribbon Mania number ever; added draw of Neko's retirement and promise of running a Korakuen show with bathing suit-clad wrestlers if they drew over 1000). Compared to SEADLINNG: 855 (8/26/2015), 786 (11/25/2015), 811 (1/11/2016), 988 (3/7/2016), 850 (5/18/2016), 987 (7/11/2016) and 708 (9/28/2016) It's not hypothetical. They can't fucking run SEADLINNG's Korakuen schedule or they would lose more than they earn. They can't do it. This isn't an opinion. This is objective fact. This is real. They drew so badly last year that they've narrowed their Korakuen Hall schedule back to just three this year, which is honestly for the best. They run smaller venues for a reason. @Hoope My point is, hot angles draw in wrestling. Period. Last year Stardom was doing crazy numbers with their Satomaru/Sendai Girls feud. Yoshiko/Act, despite turning out the way things, was hot as fuck and drew 1050. This year they're doing good numbers so far with Io's heel turn. It wiill probably do a good number on Thursday. Ice Ribbon's Anniversary had an actual heated feud between Sera/Yuuka, Maya Yukihi's heel turn, Best Friends in general, Fujimoto/Sakura, etc, and it did a good number. The shows draw when there are stories and angles to be invested in, or dream matches. Either works. WAVE draws like shit, I know, but still, ZABUN has the most signed talent of any joshi promotion and none of their wrestlers have quit to go freelance so they must be doing something right (They have exactly 16 wrestlers signed for people who need to be spoonfed every bit of information). And are we really talking about "vanity feds" in joshi, where Satomaru has been booking herself on top of Senjo for a DECADE?

You're accusing me of hating Ice Ribbon when my username is based on an Ice Ribbon tag team. Hilarious stuff, lad. I have always been a fan of Ice Ribbon and I enjoy watching their wrestlers and the shows they put on. No where in my post did I say I didn't like Ice Ribbon. In fact, there isn't a joshi promotion out there that I don't like. I enjoy all of them. You should calm down a bit. I'm just pointing out that they have the lowest attendance numbers in joshi right now because they never run any feuds or angles that generate buzz or interest. The Anniversary show had several interesting stories going into and then it had loads of outside talent booked. Those types of shows are always going to draw. I highly doubt IR will ever even come close to that number in the near future so using that as a proof of them being as or more successful than JWP, Stardom and WAVE is absurd. Ice Ribbon has had historically low Korakuen numbers throughout their existence, one decent draw doesn't erase that. SEAdLINNNG runs Korakuen semi-regularly once a month and averages 700-800, something Ice Ribbon could never dream of doing. Even in small venues like Shinjuku FACE, SEAdLINNNG drew 400.. something Ice Ribbon could never do. When Ice Ribbon did their "Muscle Venus anniversary show" at Korakuen last year they drew so badly that the 80 or so people who attended sat around the ring rather than in the bleachers. They don't draw good numbers and you are naive if you think Neoplus doesn't look at those abysmal numbers and try to find ways to fix them; hell, this year IR had their talent wrestle in bathing suits (with the added draw of .STAP reunited and wrestling their final match together) to get 927 at Korakuen. They have made an effort to improve their attendance this year more so than I can remember so at least they are learning from their mistakes.

Well, when you consider Ice Ribbon attendance numbers and you compare them with OZ, JWP, Senjo and Stardom who regularly run actual feuds and angles and get peak attendance numbers as a result, something even SEAdLINNNG has adopted, it appears to be a successful business model. This "let's all be friends" stuff never drew a dime. Most people like to see things actually happening in their wrestling.

What has OZ Academy done other than provide us with good shows of mature women graps with a mixture of contemporary joshi? It's one of the few joshi promotions that has actual angles and heated feuds rather than happy fun time. The concept of a promotion having a regular army made up of sadistic heels is also fascinating. I find it fun to watch. It's the best. Sorry for the double post. Quoting in an edit is seemingly impossible.

What did he mean by this?