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Joshi Puroresu Discussion Thread


NikkySan

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I checked out a Stardom match with Diamond/Viper vs Kyoko/Kris Wolf. Kyoko looked awful(and old) and Viper was really disappointing. I was hoping for Earthquake/Bundy or even Sawai, but Viper works so light. Thought she might have had some potential as the resident big girl.

Also sad to see that Stardom has seemingly as many gaijin as they do japanese wrestlers now. If I wanted to watch bad American wrestlers, there's already enough.

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1 hour ago, rzombie1988 said:

I checked out a Stardom match with Diamond/Viper vs Kyoko/Kris Wolf. Kyoko looked awful(and old) and Viper was really disappointing. I was hoping for Earthquake/Bundy or even Sawai, but Viper works so light. Thought she might have had some potential as the resident big girl.

Viper is so afraid of hurting anybody that she barely makes contact.  No idea if that's how she is in Europe.

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5 hours ago, Eivion said:

Yoshida still does the occasional match for Diana, doesn't she?

Also why was Best Friends vs. Thunder Rock cancelled?

No idea, but it was announced after Hiroshima Ribbon few months ago and kinda lil bit disappointed. 

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Viper looked really good in the Stardom vs. World elimination match, the tag title match vs. Thunder Rock, and the World title match vs. Io. I'd take her over the dull Envy, who was only interesting when Io was pinballing around for her boring offense.

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Everyone should check out the Io/Momo vs. Kairi/Mayu tag that went up on STARDOM World today. The story of Mayu/Kairi coming for Io's spot and her getting increasingly brutal with them to show they ain't ready is awesome. Also it's ridiculous how well Momo hangs with them despite being only 16. 

 

Io fucking dragging Kairi through her hometown crowd and dumping her down the bleachers like garbage was such a brutal "Fuck you." spot. Just amazing.

 

Results are out but anyone know when the Cinderella tourney will hit the net?

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Yoko Bito announced she will be returning to the ring for Stardom on June 16th, I wrote a brief article (with some match videos) for those not familar with her. If Yoko Bito is indeed healthy enough to make an impact, that is a pretty big deal if she returns to a full schedule. It will help fill in the gap a bit as right now the tiers in Stardom are more segregated than I would prefer. I don't really like that there is Threedom, and then everyone else, with no other native regular affiliated wrestler really even being seen as a realistic challenge to Threedom. But that partly happened because that is the spot that Act and Koguma filled and no one has really stepped up yet. Hopefully they can get a few more freelancers to be regular (I like Kagetsu) or Bito can return to old form so the promotion can have an upper mid-card again.

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The problem with that is Bito retired pretty early in. Even with her return she realistically wouldn't have much of a right to be pushed over the current rookies as she only has around 6-8 months of experience over them. And considering how wooden she started off it wouldn't surprise me if she comes back similar to to how she started due to ring rust. I'm pleased she is returning, but she inst nearly enough to fill the gap, number wise or talent wise. Its why I find it odd they haven't tried to offer someone like Kato a better position.

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I mean its wrestling, having a 'right' doesn't have much to do with things, but she was in the upper mid-card when she retired and was much more accomplished than the current rookie class. Her last match was main eventing at Korakuen for the title and she retired as tag champion, if they want to put her back on that level then its easy enough to justify.  If they are smart, if the crowd is into it and she isn't too rusty they won't make her do a six month 'proving herself' deal as that may just kill off the excitement of her returning. I think Kato is a really limited wrestler and is best suited for where she is on the card, I don't think she can keep up with Threedom and some of the rookies have shown more variety in their abilities, even though she is definitely a solid hand. But Matsumoto should be used more for sure, she has the rank and skill to hang with anyone. They still need to do more to bolster the roster but Bito coming back is a good start if she can return to old form. Watanabe is almost there but still needs more work, and I am guessing by 2017 Kyouna will be further along if she continues to develop at the same pace as she is now.

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5 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Yoko Bito announced she will be returning to the ring for Stardom on June 16th, I wrote a brief article (with some match videos) for those not familar with her. If Yoko Bito is indeed healthy enough to make an impact, that is a pretty big deal if she returns to a full schedule. It will help fill in the gap a bit as right now the tiers in Stardom are more segregated than I would prefer. I don't really like that there is Threedom, and then everyone else, with no other native regular affiliated wrestler really even being seen as a realistic challenge to Threedom. But that partly happened because that is the spot that Act and Koguma filled and no one has really stepped up yet. Hopefully they can get a few more freelancers to be regular (I like Kagetsu) or Bito can return to old form so the promotion can have an upper mid-card again.

This is great news for Stardom. Yoko was their #2 or #3 and was going to be a star.

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2 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

I mean its wrestling, having a 'right' doesn't have much to do with things, but she was in the upper mid-card when she retired and was much more accomplished than the current rookie class. Her last match was main eventing at Korakuen for the title and she retired as tag champion, if they want to put her back on that level then its easy enough to justify.  If they are smart, if the crowd is into it and she isn't too rusty they won't make her do a six month 'proving herself' deal as that may just kill off the excitement of her returning. I think Kato is a really limited wrestler and is best suited for where she is on the card, I don't think she can keep up with Threedom and some of the rookies have shown more variety in their abilities, even though she is definitely a solid hand. But Matsumoto should be used more for sure, she has the rank and skill to hang with anyone. They still need to do more to bolster the roster but Bito coming back is a good start if she can return to old form. Watanabe is almost there but still needs more work, and I am guessing by 2017 Kyouna will be further along if she continues to develop at the same pace as she is now.

I'm not asking for a six month proving herself deal, but unless Bito can come back at the level she was beforehand pushing her out of the gate woudl probably fall flat. I think Kato could do more if given the chance, and I'm not saying she should be on the level of Kairi/Mayu/Io anyways. I just think having her around as more than a random tour filler would help. I also think Watanabe is further off than people realize. I do think Kyona will be good in a year or two.

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29 minutes ago, Eivion said:

I'm not asking for a six month proving herself deal, but unless Bito can come back at the level she was beforehand pushing her out of the gate woudl probably fall flat. I think Kato could do more if given the chance, and I'm not saying she should be on the level of Kairi/Mayu/Io anyways. I just think having her around as more than a random tour filler would help. I also think Watanabe is further off than people realize. I do think Kyona will be good in a year or two.

I agree on Watanabe, she had some solid performances towards the beginning of the year, but she has some issues when she wrestles someone she isn't really familiar with. I mean I am not knocking her, she just turned 16, but I went from "she's almost ready!" to "hmmm maybe not" over a few months. But I could see within the year her getting the High Speed title since they aren't as picky with who gets a run with it.

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So WWE is looking at doing a women's global tournament for NXT. Everyone is of course saying they want to see the Stardom girls, but if you are a Stardom/joshi fan, you shouldn't want this. WWE can take any one they want at any time and Stardom would be really fucked if they lost like an Io to WWE with only having 9 native Japanese wrestlers. There's just no way Stardom could match any offer. I'd be rather concerned if I were Rossy right now. We saw what WWE did to NJPW. He better lock those girls up if he hasn't already.

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If its just a Women's tourney and not like Jr. Women's tourney then fuck it, bring aja in. She's freelance and I think winning a tourney like that and then getting a shot against Asuka in the states would be a damn fine capper to an awsome career. Honestly though if WWE is going to do that then there are still so many freelancers outthere they can use. Of course all my sadness is realized because Portia Perez is retied and she would've been so amazing for something like this.

James

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1 hour ago, J.H. said:

If its just a Women's tourney and not like Jr. Women's tourney then fuck it, bring aja in. She's freelance and I think winning a tourney like that and then getting a shot against Asuka in the states would be a damn fine capper to an awsome career. Honestly though if WWE is going to do that then there are still so many freelancers outthere they can use. Of course all my sadness is realized because Portia Perez is retied and she would've been so amazing for something like this.

James

To me, WWE raided NJPW and purposely tried to destroy their growing influence by picking up Nak, Styles, Anderson and Gallows within a month. Stardom World is gaining some fans here and I can definitely see them going for another raid. Also not sure what WWE is doing with Ibushi but they put him on screen and he "left" his promotions at the same time. Seems like more than a coincidence.

I'd have no problems with them going for freelancers, but I have a bad feeling they are going to just raid Stardom or another group.

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1 hour ago, rzombie1988 said:

To me, WWE raided NJPW and purposely tried to destroy their growing influence by picking up Nak, Styles, Anderson and Gallows within a month.

Well that is paranoid. They tried to get Nakamura last year. Bernard & Bryan having been pushing for him to join for a bit now. Bernard has been pushing for Anderson for a long while as well. I'm sure Finn started pushing for both as well when he came in. They wanted Styles already and didn't get him because they low-balled him. They didn't make that mistake again after seeing how well he did in NJPW. Gallows already has a history with the promotion and was making a name for himself as Anderson's partner. It just makes sense to bring them in together, especially when you have two leaders of the former Bullet Club already there. It all more a case of the timing of NJPW's contracts than anything else.

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I'd have no problems with them going for freelancers, but I have a bad feeling they are going to just raid Stardom or another group.

Unless they are planning a show purely for women I doubt they will raid anyone. I do understand your fears, but I wouldn't worry much until there is at least an official announcement.

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Plus, if WWE wanted Io and Io was interested, they'd have her. Her being in the tournament (hypothetically, I don't see Stardom allowing it) wouldn't really impact things any. But Joshi promotions as far as I am aware don't pay near enough to compete with what WWE can offer so it isn't something worth worrying about since if it happens, it happens. Honestly I don't see WWE suddenly wanting a bunch of foreign wrestlers with marginal English skills, it doesn't match their methods at all, they seem a lot more interested in wrestlers that can cut promos in English. I think Nakamura and Kana will be the exceptions, not the new norm.

I'd be interested to know what Kana would think about that, its no secret she isn't on great terms with Stardom (or at least Io), but I've never heard anything besides rumors on how bad the blood goes. I am not sure if she has the clout to block anything, I doubt it, but they'd likely at least ask her opinion since she is the most familar with Joshi wrestlers. Imagine Asuka vs. Io in NXT.

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I want to say Nakamura speaks good English if I recall correctly.

I wasn't aware Asuka had bad blood with Io. I always thought any problems with Stardom were related more to Nanae & maybe Fuka. 

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26 minutes ago, Eivion said:

I want to say Nakamura speaks good English if I recall correctly.

I wasn't aware Asuka had bad blood with Io. I always thought any problems with Stardom were related more to Nanae & maybe Fuka. 

I just meant not good enough to have a ten minute back and forth promo like WWE does with their stars.

When researching stuff back when I first was getting into Kana matches I had read there were some issues during the Triple Tails split, but since that was five years ago I have no idea if there were sill any issues. I found it odd that Kana wasn't at Mio's Retirement show (nor was Mio at Kana's farewell show for that matter) and Kana had no official interaction with Io in five years, but whether that was coincidence or not I can't say. Since the Shirai Sisters seemed to go out of their way to not wrestle with or against Kana after respective splits with her, either there were some lingering issues or they took 'going in different directions' really seriously.

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7 hours ago, Eivion said:

Well that is paranoid. They tried to get Nakamura last year. Bernard & Bryan having been pushing for him to join for a bit now. Bernard has been pushing for Anderson for a long while as well. I'm sure Finn started pushing for both as well when he came in. They wanted Styles already and didn't get him because they low-balled him. They didn't make that mistake again after seeing how well he did in NJPW. Gallows already has a history with the promotion and was making a name for himself as Anderson's partner. It just makes sense to bring them in together, especially when you have two leaders of the former Bullet Club already there. It all more a case of the timing of NJPW's contracts than anything else.

Unless they are planning a show purely for women I doubt they will raid anyone. I do understand your fears, but I wouldn't worry much until there is at least an official announcement.

If they really wanted someone, they wouldn't of lowballed that person. See Del Rio. They've had over a decade to grab AJ and obviously never put a real offer, or he probably would have went. They just "happened to" once NJPW started getting some English speaking fans and just "happened to" along with some other NJPW guys. Yes the contracts all did expire around the same time, just with that, Nakamura and Ibushi(if they signed him), it screams to me that they were trying to screw NJPW.

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They didn't lowball him the next time because his time in NJPW proved he was worth main event status/money. You keep talking about screwing over NJPW, but ultimately they lost about four guys. It hasn't hurt their attendances and seems to have forced them to finally move forward a little more.

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My gut is that they weren't targeting New Japan specifically but they did have a change in philosophy, they are a lot more active in picking up wrestlers they think can improve their shows. I mean they went after the best wrestler in LU, all the TNA guys they thought were decent, NOAH (KENTA and TMDK), La Sombra, Kana, etc. It is definitely a change but I just don't think they went out of their way just to get New Japan or they would have gone for their younger talent. Gallows and Anderson only went because they were a package deal with Styles, if Styles didn't go I don't think they would have either as just a team they aren't really needed.

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