Jiji Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 The most important match in the history of our sport. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 (edited) Spoiler That was one of the finest performances I've ever seen. I love this shit so much. 50 minute match that builds not just on the Lulu/Chris storyline but also advances Chie's own search for success, the Best Bros vs. Minoru storyline, and the Hagane/Emi stuff that I mentioned a couple weeks back. Edit: AND HOW DO THEY FOLLOW THAT?! RINA YAMASHITA!!!!! She and Minoru Fujita will take on the Best Bros. Ooooh. Hell. Yeah. Edited May 1, 2021 by Jiji Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 4, 2021 Share Posted May 4, 2021 (edited) I watched TJPW live, Yuka won the 3 way match so she is the next contender for the POP title. Miyu beat Rika for the POP title. So it will be the ACE and POP Champion Miyu vs Yuka at CyberFight Fest 2021. The International Princess Champion Yuki Kamifuku lost to Hikari Noa, so Hiraki is the new champ. Edited May 4, 2021 by D.Z 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lp6 Posted May 6, 2021 Share Posted May 6, 2021 Dave meltzer reviews Ajw 1994 Big egg universe Sunday he greatest woman wrestler who ever lived, left the ring at the Tokyo Dome, her face covered with both sweat and tears, and collapsed in the locker room amidst a hoard of reporters asking her about her future. It will no doubt be remembered as the pinnacle moment of not only her career, but that of her sport. Five years earlier, it looked like that sport had its last big hurrah, its first and what figured to be its last $ 500,000 house--"The day the music died," so to speak at the Yokohama Arena, signifying the retirement of its most popular performer ever, Chigusa Nagayo Soon after it lost its weekly Saturday afternoon television time slot. It was relegated to a monthly slot in the middle of the night, and with no charismatic superstars left, the teenage girls that were the fan base grew up and left pro wrestling behind. But it was a temporary lull, re-emerging just two years later with a new appeal, with new stars and with an entirely new audience demographic that would have never considered watching it before. They would have dismissed it, despite the quality of the matches being the best anywhere, as entertainment aimed at schoolgirls, which it was. But when it reemerged, it built to a level larger than anyone's imaginations at the time could have ever conceived of. The moment ended a day that began ten hours earlier when a 60-piece marching band led a parade of more than five- dozen wrestlers representing 11 different flagcarrying federations which looked like a scaled-down version of the Olympic games opening ceremonies. A day that can be best described by one word. Staggering."Big Egg Wrestling Universe," as the showwas called, set a production standard for the industry that not only broke new ground, but in ten hours set the evolutionary clock of the industry ahead by ten years. It more closely resembled a Super Bowl than a Wrestlemania as an event. The figures were more than just record-breaking, they were astounding. It was more than just the 42,500 fans, which more than doubled the all-time record for a woman's wrestling show that held up for 53 years (19,000 fans for a match between Mildred Burke and Elvira Snodgrass in 1941 in Louisville). There have been 12 crowds larger than that in Japan formen's wrestling just in the last five-and-ahalf years. But what was astounding is the popularity potential of women' s wrestling that this show uncovered. On April 2, 1993, All Japan women drew the first million dollar house in women's wrestling history for Dream Slam I at the Yokohama Arena, still probably the greatest pro wrestling show ever and at the time, the best series of interpromotional matches for drawing fans and believed to be just about the limit as to the best crowd the group would be capableof. Try $ 4 million 19 months later, paced by about 6,000 fans paying the top ticket price of $300 on the stadium floor. On April 2, 1993, the promotion did a staggering $68,000 in program sales alone. Try $612,000. Add what could have been close to if notexceeding another seven figures on other gimmick sales, throw in eventual commercial videotape revenue (between $1 and $2 million), network television rights and corporate sponsorship fees (in excess of $ 1 million) and you're talking about when all is said and done, gross revenues that will end up in the $8 million range. You're talking Wrestlemania gross revenue, but achieved without the most lucrative arm of the Wrestlemania revenue stream, the pay-per-view end. Staggering described more than just the business aspect. To say the ring entrances were the most elaborate in the history of wrestling wouldn't begin to do the show justice. The wrestlers came out from a curtain on a sound stage in the baseball stadium outfield. The sound stage stretched nearly from foul pole to foul pole, blocking out some 14,000 outfield seats from being able to be sold. There were the usual explosive and pinwheel fireworks entrances. The last 13 matches had laser light show ring entrances, with the light show corresponding with the wrestlers' entrance music and light show in some cases making designs of the wrestler on the ceiling of the Dome. Wrestlers looked like they entered in cages and space ships from above (actually brought in by hidden lowered cranes from backstage but the visual effect with steam coming from the stage to the bottom of the entrance vehicle looked like ships levitating in mid-air), from underneath, in giant balloons, with acrobatic Ninjas and amidst a parade of Harleys. Approximately $1.1 million was spent on special effects alone including a sound stage as impressive if not more than at the biggest rock & roll shows. Every match had its own corporate sponsor, who would then present a trophy and/or gift to the winner of the match. And then there was the wrestling. This was not the greatest wrestling card of alltime, although it had to rank as among the best. But it was easily the best Tokyo Dome show ever. Ten hours and 23 matches are just too long even with some 40 topes and seven four-star matches. If scaled back to eight hours and if the four shoot matches and midgets were eliminated, and if the show ended with a more climactic last two matches, this could have been the greatest wrestling show ever. If any card could be called a slow builder, this was it. There really wasn't any major heat until the tenth match on the show when Shinobu Kandori and Toshiyo Yamada tore the house down. From that point things were off and running from 4:45 p.m. until 11 p.m. with one great match after another, with one 30 minute intermission at 6:30 p. m. and a second "opening ceremony," this time for the eight participants in the tournament only. Amazingly enough, there was still excellent heat nine hours in, up through the Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai V�Top Woman tournament semifinal match, but the crowd got tired by 11 p.m. (the majority having been there from the start). Many kids, because of the curfew law (under 18 without parental accompaniment have to return home at 10:30 p.m.), people who came in from far away hoping tocatch the last train home, not expecting that an "afternoon" show would last until almost midnight, and those simply exhausted from the day or worried about getting up for work the next morning, started filing out early. There appeared to still be 35,000 in the building at 11:20 p.m. when the ring introductions for the final match began. So it' ll have to settle for being the greatest wrestling spectacle. Originally this show was to be Hokuto's retirement show, as throughout the year they had advertised thepromotion's three biggest cards of the year (March at the Yokohama Arena, August at Budokan Hall and this show) would be the "Dangerous Queen final countdown." In the rough and dangerous world of Japanese women's wrestling, Hokuto was in many ways a symbol of the life-style of the participants and the promotion. Starting as a pro under her real name of Hisako Uno just before her 18th birthday, she was respected almost immediately as being a standout among the many good athletes in the promotion that entered the sport in the midst of the Crush Gals phenomenon. Even without a special look or gimmick, she teamed with Yumiko Hotta to win the WWWA world tag team titles from Leilani Kai & Judy Martin at the age of 19. But less than two weeks later, on April 27, 1987, it was over, not just the tag title reign, but apparently the career. She took a tombstone piledriver off the top rope for the second fall finish, the first and last time such a move has been done in the AJW ring, since it resulted in a broken neck. Even more than her ability, where she gained her reputation was in guts. The broken neck came during the finish of the second fall of that match. She got up, literally holding her head in place with her hands, and went through all her high spots, blocking out the pain, and worked the entire third fall. But it was about one year later before she could return to the ring, returning with bleached blond hair under the new character of Akira Hokuto, taking the first name of the most popular male wrestler in Japanat the time. Although she was quickly regarded as the best worker in the group, it wasn't until years later when the fans caught onto her, largely because of her frequent injuries resulting in ribs, shoulders, elbows and knees being taped in place, often at the same time. The "mummy" having incredible matches week-after-week tends to eventually get noticed. She broke her back before a major show, and was back in main events two weeks later. After a broken neck, everything else was child's play. It was Dream Slam I and her match with Shinobu Kandori that established her as the group's biggest star in what was to be her final year of her career. While on tour in Mexico earlier that year, she got engaged and later in the year married to a Mexican wrestler who goes by the name Mascara Magica, and was moving there permanently at the end of 1983. But the Kandori match, which set so many records, also established her, when pushed in a key match, as the biggest drawing card in womens wrestling at the time, perhaps in its history, a status cultivated through the remainder of 1993 and through 1994. Over the past month or so, the promotion stopped all hype regarding the show being Hokuto's retirement match. She, under a mask as Reina Jubuki, had won the CMLL womens championship and it became well-known she was going to continue her career in Mexico, where some had labeled her the Michael Jordan of womens wrestling. It was announced after the show that Hokuto would return to Japan for one or two major matches in 1995, including a return fall engagement at the Dome.Hokuto, 27, was presented as the show's star, winning the V�Top Woman tournament, the main draw of the card, and new title belt to represent the top champion of all womens world champions. Hokuto pinned long-time rival Kong in the finals. The way the publicity for the show was done and the way the crowd reacted, anyone else winning would have been both a surprise and a disappointment to the crowd. While all the major stars were "over" to a degree, she was clearly the star. While it was the pinnacle of Hokuto's career as far as being the key wrestler to draw the record house and being awarded a championship emblematic of her status as the best in the world, regardless of organization, there was disappointment in that it wasn't her finest hour in the ring. Saddled with the two weakest wrestlers in the tournament (LLPW's Eagle Sawai and FMW's Combat Toyoda) in her first two matches, and then with a tired crowd in a "story" match with Kong in the finals, her three bouts were the only tournament matches not to reach ****. The virtual consensus was the best match on the show was Kong's match with Manami Toyota in the tournament first round at ** ***, with another first round match of Yumiko Hotta vs. Toyoda shocking everyone as its closest rival and Kong vs. Kansai third. The match of U.S. significance was second from last, with Bull Nakano winning the WWF womens title from Alundra Blayze (also known in Japan as Madusa as all the women in their interviews were calling herby her old ring name) . Coming on after 11 p.m. and following Kong-Kansai with the spent crowd was tough enough, but being asked to work American style so as to provide something different on the show made it even tougher. The Nakano-Blayze match was virtually identical to their regular WWF house show matches, which are usually one of the two best matches on most shows, but paled in this company. Nakano kicked out of Blayze's german suplex finisher and wound up winning with a legdrop off the top rope in9:27. After the match Nakano told fans she was returning to the United States and would stay through September of 1995, and asked fans to remember her when she returned. In locker room interviews Nakano said she wanted to defend her title against Kyoko Inoue in Japan next year on a big show, most likely March 26 at Yokohama Arena, most likely one week before the expected title change back.The card also featured a men's six man tag match with the stars of Michinoku Pro Wrestling doing their typical house show main event match; a "Miss Wrestling Universe" tag team match between four of the prettiest women in Japanese wrestling (one of whom, Takako Inoue, had a softcore-porn picture book released by the office earlier in the week selling like crazy at the souvenir stands hyped by some risque magazine shots in several different mags in the month leading up to the show); the debut of Blizzard Yuki (Sakie Hasegawa), a masked female martial artist as a cross- marketing gimmick of a character that will be released this coming week as a comic book figure that will also be part of computer games animation and perhaps as a television cartoon character; a legends tag match featuring Jaguar Yokota, the pioneer of this style of women's wrestling; and four shooting fights, two under amateur wrestling guidelines, one under shoot boxing rules and another under kick boxing rules. The opening ceremonies saw not only all the wrestlers on the card, but many not on the card dressed in matching sweat outfits with company and sponsor logos, mascots and flag carriers with the various promotional insignias coming out for All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling (AJW), JWP, LLPW, FMW, Gaea Japan, Michinoku Pro Wrestling, World Wrestling Federation, EMLL, Shoot Boxing, All Japan Female Wrestling Federation (amateur wrestling) and the Women's Amateur Wrestling Association from France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofuture Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 The Hana Kimura Memorial Show on the 22nd will be on Fite TV for $14.99: https://www.fite.tv/watch/hana-kimura-memorial-matane/2p9bx/ 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 The section from Shupro "Visualist" is getting its own mag. Giulia makes the cover. https://mobile.twitter.com/shupro_vis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 (edited) The Stardom Cinderella Finals are postponed. Edited May 11, 2021 by D.Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Chris Brookes and Emi Pencil just had one of my favourite matches in recent memory. This is exactly what I wanted when I was talking about his match against Saki. Jesus Christ. What a fucking match and angle. Emi Pencil is the real threat to TK's booker of the year award. She's da pencil and she's got da pencil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 6 hours ago, D.Z said: The Stardom Cinderella Finals are postponed. They cancelled the Ota due to a request from the vendors themselves. Its a shame to see the pandemic screw them out of Ota twice now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted May 13, 2021 Share Posted May 13, 2021 Went full mark and ordered the two new Hana shirts and the ppv. I don't think I'm going to be emotionally prepared though. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spontaneous Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 I'm trying to watch some of the other Cyberfight companies shows prior to Cyberfight Festival. TJPW's Yes! Wonderland show was excellent. I really liked the #1 Contenders triple threat, the Kamifuka-Noa and Tatsumi-Yamashita. I had only seen Shoko Nakajima and Yuka Sakazaki before, I liked their Ultimate Party 2019 match so that convinced me to watch this show. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 15, 2021 Share Posted May 15, 2021 (edited) Stardom: from bunch of shows Koguma returned to help Stars and is a member now. Tag champs Giulia and Syuri vs Utami and Tall Saya. Fukigen vs Natsupoi for the high speed title? Sad Clown vs Shin Megami Fairy. Jungle Kyona announced for the Hana Memorial Show. TJPW: Maki and Miyu will try to win the women tags. Hikari vs Marika is set for the IP belt. Marika wore something similar to old costume from neck to down. Edited May 15, 2021 by D.Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 15, 2021 Share Posted May 15, 2021 The postponed Cinderella show is now on June 12 instead. "TOKYO DREAM CINDERELLA 2021 Special Edition" at Ota Ward Gym. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofuture Posted May 15, 2021 Share Posted May 15, 2021 You forgot to mention Unagi Sayaka officially signing to Stardom. Didn't think much of her when she was in TJPW, but she's been a solid pick up for Stardom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.H. Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Definitely want to check out the 6-Woman title match from today's Stardom show. Interested to see who stands put Janes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 I'm curious, but I can't say I'm super excited. CA going 30 minutes does not sound like a good idea at all, and I like all three. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted May 19, 2021 Share Posted May 19, 2021 This is wild. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 20, 2021 Share Posted May 20, 2021 Momo Kohgo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 21, 2021 Share Posted May 21, 2021 Liger and Giulia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofuture Posted May 21, 2021 Share Posted May 21, 2021 Roundtable including Kyoko Kimura, Kris Wolfe, Session Moth among others in light of the Hana show tomorrow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted May 22, 2021 Share Posted May 22, 2021 Damn, poor Zoey couldn't even get her piece completely out. She just broke down fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted May 22, 2021 Share Posted May 22, 2021 The Hana show is tonight at 7 PM Pacific. I don't think I'm going to watch tonight, I don't want to spend my Saturday evening crying. I'll watch tomorrow sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted May 22, 2021 Share Posted May 22, 2021 TJPW INSPIRATION will be headlined by Miyu Yamashita Vs Mirai Maiumi in a UWF Rules match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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