Mr. Monday Morning

For those who like some hittin' Sayaka & Rina Yamashita had a fun one at ChocoPro earlier today - it should be up on their youtube shortly (10am Sunday JST) Whole show was fun, albeit the other 2 were mixed tags so not strictly joshi per se.

Alright well today was fun as I got to chalk off Korakuen from the bucket list and see a super fun DDT show (April Fool). I might honestly have preferred it to Sakura Genesis, the much more laid back and fun vibe was a treat. I'm not sure if they showed the pre-show match but there were some...interesting characters in there. Oh and Big Hash is the TRUTH

I wouldn't even remotely call myself a regular TJPW watcher but Grand Princess was super fun. A little long, they probably could've cut one or two of the openers (or SKE48, lol) but a little something for everyone and some really good stuff. Personally MagiRabi vs TeaDK was MotN but there were a couple others that ran it very close. Brookes is getting into (already in?) that rarified Claudio-type air where you just slot him in to base for joshis and you know you'll get something great.

I guess this should go in the ROH thread (if there even is such a thing) but maybe not everyone checks there - anyway, Maika/Mina/Mei Seira vs Tam/Tall Saya/AZM got announced for the RoH PPV on 5th April

Sooo Stardom did some test livestreaming of the weekend's shows and it seems to have gone pretty well. Some highlights (?) -AZM & Mina bonding ahead of their stint in America (if you've ever wanted to see dancing AZM then between Mina's Tiktok and the match on Saturday you've been spoiled this weekend) -Golden Generation tag (Utami/Tall Saya/Maika/Non-Tall Saya) -DDM reunion tag (Giulia/Syuri/Maika/Natsupoi/Mirai/Mai Sakurai) -Sayaka Kurara and Aya Sakura both having singles against Yunamon trying to get into Cozuen -New Blood tag title match Ah heck there's a bunch of good stuff

Yuzuki's a surprise, that one will hurt a bit. She definitely has a lot of promise. Not sure how they wouldn't have the rookies on deals though, that seems odd.

Not sure how long to leave for Cinderella spoilers? I'll put it in anyway to be safe Meltz has dropped a slight update but it's nothing that people won't have figured out. Utami, Mirai, Suzu likely leaving with Giulia, Tall Saya and Syuri staying, etc. We probably won't really know for sure for another few months. But it seems like a) Okada has managed to convince at least a couple to stay who were minded to go, at least for now, and b) we'll likely see a lot more movement in and out of Stardom if Rossy establishes his new thing. Wouldn't be surprising if some left and then came back in future.

More names announced for the Stardom Philly show Complete lineup: Not sure about KoMomo as she's meant to be injured, but maybe its not that bad. Some notable absences, obviously, but could be for any number of reasons. Saori does stick out a bit given she's been working the US semi-regularly - I can't keep track of who's been caught up in the whole visa mess though.

(Stardom Prez) Okada is at the AEW show tonight -edit- aaaand Mina worked the ROH taping

11 March spoiler Tomorrow is Tanga vs Finlay and Goto vs Chase at the top of the card. As nature intended.

It was Chase's birthday guys. Don't you get totally undeserved presents on your birthdays?

Cinderella tournament night 1 results + thoughts. There is some big future match news coming out of this, I'll leave it in the spoiler for now In not really spoilery news they announced the 5 Star will be held between 10-31 August. So there will almost certainly be format changes of some description

Yikes - I was about to place an order for All Star Grand Queendom tickets today. Might have to hold off on that... Can Bushiroad go like, 2 weeks without having some sort of embarrassment? I haven't been watching a super long time but it seemed pretty clear things were not working well last year and it seemed from the outside that was down to Rossy having booking decisions taken away from him / over his head. Doesn't bode well.

Some Stardom spoilers for 1/3 & 1/4 Also! They will be running a show in Philly 4/4, tickets are here (link button isn't working for some reason) https://2300arena.showare.com/orderticketsvenue.asp?p=481

Giulia gave an interview where (translation and/or interpretation permitting) she intimated that certain decisions had been getting taken out of Rossy's hands. Might explain some of the decisions recently https://kakutolog.info/wrestling/stardom/31761/

Ohhh yikes. Tam and Natsupoi are not expected back for a while, so the red belt and tag belts have both been vacated. -edit- in better news it seems Saya Kamitani might be ready to return - scratch that, Saya and Utami both return Nov 28 -edit again- wow regular newsbomb today Maika and Megan Bayne will face a TBD team Dec 2 for the tag belts Suzu Suzuki will face the winner of a 4 woman mini-tourney being held Nov 28 for the red belt at the Dec 29 Dream Queendom PPV -Maika vs Ami Sohrei -Mina Shirakawa vs Momo Watanabe Meanwhile Suzu will defend her right to challenge vs Hazuki that same night (Nov 28) Dec 2 will also see Mei Seira defend the High Speed against Thekla and Giulia defend the NJPW Strong against AZM

No Stardom rep at WK next year, they will instead run an entire show beforehand, which is potentially going to directly clash with TJPW Historic X-Over (or whatever the cool kids call it) will return. Mayu wants to team with Tana. Hoping for the AZM-Ospreay dream team personally (if he's still around by then) And All Star Grand Queendom announced for 27 April in Yokohama again, but at the smaller soon to be rebuilt Buntai. Which I'll admit has me slightly worried as they sold more tickets this year than that arena is supposed to have capacity, and I was hoping to go next year - sumotickets you're my only hope

I could've sworn it was confirmed after she was injured Saya was intended to win the thing?

Utami officially out of the 5* with a cervical hernia. I'm not a doctor (and something might be lost in translation) but that doesn't sound promising - hopefully its not serious. At a guess that's probably the 1st and 2nd choice winners out through injury now - slightly cursed this year. AZM will face Mayu for her 10th anniversary

The 3rd one of these appears not correct as they announced all the teams. Think it was more of a 'please in future' deal

Dream Tag was a fun show, felt like a bit of a throwback with the costume switch and the odd (mostly old) partnerships. Probably never be a draft again but I do wonder if the roster could do with a bit of a bigger shakeup. I know some folk had been asking for OT or QQ to disband in the buildup to the cage match.

Thought I read somewhere Tony said in the presser he was open to working with them again - I hope for his sake he was bs'ing. Even in this business they stand out as carnies.

Think this is spot on. Some of the reactions from where I was weren't what I was expecting, not sure if they came across the same on TV. My memory's a bit off but has Ibushi even been on AEW TV? He just showed up for Blood & Guts and then showed up here, unless I'm mistaken. Hard not to think it hasn't played a role in the reaction. That said, I had good seats, enjoyed it, was a little late getting in but got there as Aussie Open were entering, so didn't really miss much. I was honestly surprised that it didn't feel like it dragged (at least, to me) - felt like the card order was done well Got a pretty decent pic of Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, will have to up later after sleep