zev Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 Thought it was last night. My bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 Nope, but it should be starting soon. Check out the US twitter for updates. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 The results are in. Spoiler Toni Storm beat Mayu in the finals and challenged Io for the red belt. Mayu challenged Kairi for the white. It feels weird since I kind of saw that final coming, and I'm used to being wrong on my guesses. I've been wanting to see Kairi vs. Mayu again so I'm happy to see that happen again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 While Toni over Mayu was predictable (that was my prediction but I wasn't alone), I think it was the right way to go. Sometimes the predictable way is still the best way, I hate swerves just for the sake of having a swerve. Several potential future storylines were set up or continued during the tournament (Kairi vs. HZK, Io vs. Havok, Toni finally getting a title shot, Mayu coming up just short of a three-peat which may lead her down a new path) and while I haven't seen the matches of course, it was booked about how I would have booked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofuture Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 Ogawa and Michael Hayes must shop at the same store. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maciej Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 So, I absolutely loved the Aja/Chihiro title match. I don't disagree with Kevin's review from joshicity that the leg lock so far into the match slowed things down a little unnecessarily, but it was like the only thing in the match that didn't work for me, and Chihiro sold it well enough afterwards. From the beginning stages on the mat, where Aja constantly works smart, with the biting but also using her legs and power to at least hold off Chihiro for a while in a half-guard (I'm only pretending to know MMA terms, sorry if that's wildly wrong), to Aja going into "fuck it, I'm losing, I need to toss her into chairs for a while and get this shit back on the right track" mode at just the right time, to the build to the Germans, the flailing Uraken, man, I really thought they performed the hell out of this. I think I might be a bit on an island on this one; I liked it even better than the also really great Matsumoto/Satomura match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 If that is the January match I watched that a week or two ago, I loved it once things got moving. I didn't have a problem with the leglock at all. It played off an earlier counter and put over Aja's wilyness as vet in managing to trick Hashimoto twice on that. It also kind of played into the finishing stretch with the damage it did. I thought it was a smarter match with a bit more story to it than the Satomura match. Its also why it doesn't quite measure up to it though for me. I think matches like that generally need more time. Satomura/Hashimoto was simpler. The Aja match however really does put over how talented Hashimoto is to me. She just needs to find the same confidence and comfort she has working with vets when she works with people closer to her own experience level. She absolutely could have had a barn burner with Miyagi had she brought more of what she did against Aja & Meiko. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maciej Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 5 hours ago, Eivion said: If that is the January match I watched that a week or two ago, I loved it once things got moving. Naw, I thought the January match was good, too, but I meant the April rematch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 I still need to get to that one. I'm behind on Sendai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 I had people on Twitter "vote" on which old defunct promotion I should cover more, and GAEA easily won. So I just ordered all the GAEA events from 1995 and 1996 that made tape, and plan on starting from the beginning. I've only seen spot GAEA shows and got into Joshi well after the promotion closed down, so it should be interesting to see how the promotion looks through reasonably fresh eyes. They had a ton of big matches, it may take me a few months to get to that point but I'll get there eventually. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMTD Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 Kairi just announced she's leaving Stardom (which confirms what we pretty much already knew). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 So basically Kevin is gonna be Dean's new best friend with all the GAEA coverage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trocar Slush Weasel Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 30 minutes ago, RIPPA said: So basically Kevin is gonna be Dean's new best friend with all the GAEA coverage I once made a Best of tape of those hot GAEA years, starting when Asuka first appeared. Don't remember who the hell I sent it to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 6 hours ago, JMTD said: Kairi just announced she's leaving Stardom (which confirms what we pretty much already knew). I'm glad they finally made an announcement though I have no idea why she won the Artist titles if she is on her way out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1JoshI Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 I wonder what Kevin's gonna think of Baby Meiko with the flailing arms? Hope he knows to hit fast forward for Sakura Hirota matches unless she's doing a parody version of another wrestler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 Nothing gets fast forwarded! And I've seen Meiko's flailing arms in WCW and naturally made a joke about it Kairi's announcement confused a lot of people, as they seem to think she is leaving next weekend which isn't the case. No date has been announced but she isn't leaving that soon, hell she still has a title defense against Mayu coming up. I made an attempt to Google Translate her interview on their website and it just mentions (I think) that the visa is still being worked out so there isn't a set date yet on when she will have her last match. My assumption is she'll be gone before the NXT Women's Tournament, which I expect her to win or at least reach the finals, to give her a boost going into NXT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zev Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 For sake of GAEA coverage, and that Best Documentary poll elsewhere on site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU4OYP1i82k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinube Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 5 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said: Nothing gets fast forwarded! And I've seen Meiko's flailing arms in WCW and naturally made a joke about it Kairi's announcement confused a lot of people, as they seem to think she is leaving next weekend which isn't the case. No date has been announced but she isn't leaving that soon, hell she still has a title defense against Mayu coming up. I made an attempt to Google Translate her interview on their website and it just mentions (I think) that the visa is still being worked out so there isn't a set date yet on when she will have her last match. My assumption is she'll be gone before the NXT Women's Tournament, which I expect her to win or at least reach the finals, to give her a boost going into NXT. Yeah, and since they (Stardom) hasn't really finalized their schedule - they mentioned everything past the 15th is up in the air which I assume means card wise, not date wise - they can't really announce anything. She's not even sure how long it will take - she says three or four months which wouldn't be in time for the tournament, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dshuks Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 7 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said: Nothing gets fast forwarded! And I've seen Meiko's flailing arms in WCW and naturally made a joke about it Kairi's announcement confused a lot of people, as they seem to think she is leaving next weekend which isn't the case. No date has been announced but she isn't leaving that soon, hell she still has a title defense against Mayu coming up. I made an attempt to Google Translate her interview on their website and it just mentions (I think) that the visa is still being worked out so there isn't a set date yet on when she will have her last match. My assumption is she'll be gone before the NXT Women's Tournament, which I expect her to win or at least reach the finals, to give her a boost going into NXT. How wouldn't people get confused ? Usually when an announcement is made that someone is leaving someplace, they usually leave relatively close to the announcement . It seems pretty logical for people to assume that she would be leaving in the west few weeks at least, even if that is not the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 4 hours ago, Dshuks said: How wouldn't people get confused ? Usually when an announcement is made that someone is leaving someplace, they usually leave relatively close to the announcement . It seems pretty logical for people to assume that she would be leaving in the west few weeks at least, even if that is not the case. Well I wasn't confused, I can't speak for others. They posted the interview on their website where she says she isn't leaving immediately, and Stardom didn't say "she is leaving on ____". As far as I know we don't know her entire promo from the other night, it was just based off the English Stardom's tweet which was just a one sentence "she said she is leaving" and people ran with it while doing no further investigating. I completely understand due to the language difference/google translate not working well that things can be misconstrued when announced in Japan, I've had that issue in the past myself, but people just made assumptions instead of looking into it for 10 seconds like I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 The twitter posted that they don't actually have a date yet for her final show so I assume they aren't entirely sure of the exact date yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 For anyone visiting the thread that doesn't normally watch Joshi, I uploaded 12 Kairi Hojo matches that I'd recommend watching. There are other good matches but I didn't want to upload anything from Stardom World, for a variety of obvious reasons. But its still a pretty good assortment of her best matches for newer fans. I'd particularly recommend her first singles match against Meiko Satomura and any of the matches against Io Shirai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 Some of those are on Stardom World. Weird choice for NanaKairi. Their best matches were against Io/Yoshiko & Iroha/Sera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMTD Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 On 2017-5-7 at 0:48 AM, Kevin Wilson said: Nothing gets fast forwarded! And I've seen Meiko's flailing arms in WCW and naturally made a joke about it Kairi's announcement confused a lot of people, as they seem to think she is leaving next weekend which isn't the case. No date has been announced but she isn't leaving that soon, hell she still has a title defense against Mayu coming up. I made an attempt to Google Translate her interview on their website and it just mentions (I think) that the visa is still being worked out so there isn't a set date yet on when she will have her last match. My assumption is she'll be gone before the NXT Women's Tournament, which I expect her to win or at least reach the finals, to give her a boost going into NXT. Not sure it's an NXT tournament? Last I saw it's billed as a Women's tournament, likely will be similar to the Cruiserweight classic, will be interesting to see if the winner goes straight up to the main roster or works in NXT first and what they even get for winning for that matter. The company didn't have title's/champions prior CWC and UK tournaments so it made sense for those to crown a champion. I imagine this one will be a trophy or something along those lines. I'd expect her to win it unless Io announces she's signed with the WWE before then. I'm convinced we'll see Asuka/Kairi at some stage this year or very early next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 Kairi's situation is different than the wrestlers in the CWC, since she has already signed a three year contract. Even if its not officially an NXT tournament, I'm not sure if they have announced that, either way we know she is going to NXT afterwards. But I have no doubt she isn't going to the main roster, the main roster has a healthy women's roster at the moment and I don't think she'd do as well if she randomly debuted on RAW without some buildup. Even Shinsuke took a stint in NXT, I think part of the reason is in training they also give lessons on English which is something important to WWE for the main roster. 80% sure that if Io was leaving in time for the tournament in July we'd know about it by now, (or really soon) it takes time to get visas and what not and Meltzer probably would have known about it since Stardom defections is the only Joshi related information he really ever reports on. As I've mentioned, Kairi needs to hope that Io isn't coming at the same time as if one of them got lost in the shuffle I think it would be Kairi. Expecting WWE to push three Japanese wrestlers in the same division at the same time would be asking a lot, unless they pushed Asuka up to the main roster first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts