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Joshi Puroresu Discussion Thread


NikkySan

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I don't think her online presence is as intentionally cultivated or calculated as that, so much as she was always going to have to find novel ways to get over as a wrestler. I mean, she's under five-feet tall, has no real athletic background, and debuted at 30. And in the era of Being the Elite, I'm not sure we should discount the ability of a little internet fame to help wrestlers.

(I'd also add that it's easy, if you're just seeing the TDE gifs and retweets, to assume she's more prominent in Stardom than she is. But she's not even the head of her own stable, much less the face of the company. She's a solid midcard character, which is the perfect place for eccentric semi-comedy.)

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6 hours ago, Beech27 said:

I don't think her online presence is as intentionally cultivated or calculated as that, so much as she was always going to have to find novel ways to get over as a wrestler. I mean, she's under five-feet tall, has no real athletic background, and debuted at 30. And in the era of Being the Elite, I'm not sure we should discount the ability of a little internet fame to help wrestlers.

(I'd also add that it's easy, if you're just seeing the TDE gifs and retweets, to assume she's more prominent in Stardom than she is. But she's not even the head of her own stable, much less the face of the company. She's a solid midcard character, which is the perfect place for eccentric semi-comedy.)

From what I can tell based on limited viewings, I'm assuming she's basically Bolshoi Kid, except a wolf and not as good. Fair comparison?

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Gets you in the ballpark, especially if we compare at similar levels of experience. (That is, limit the comparison to Kid, not Command.) She's the same size, and similarly eccentric--because, yes, she's an overgrown feral child who was raised by wolves/is a wolf, maybe. Not literally a clown, but... yes, a clown. (In a good way!)

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Interesting to see people suddenly interested  in a Stardom midcard wrestler, especially with so little knowledge about how the promotion is structured and what Kris Wolf's role is with the company. She's on about the same level as Hiromi Mimura (similar age and size). She's a fun lackey that mostly is in multi-wrestler midcard matches, occasional comic relief and an entertaining character to help matches that would have no meaning have a bit of life to them. But she is like the 7th ranked wrestler in a promotion with ten wrestlers, and she's only made about five youtube videos in the last year so referring to her as a "youtuber" just shows a general lack of knowledge (or an inability to research).

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1 hour ago, Kevin Wilson said:

But she is like the 7th ranked wrestler in a promotion with ten wrestlers,

Even this might be giving her just a tad too much credit, especially if you start including regular freelancers and gaijin.

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5 hours ago, Eivion said:

Even this might be giving her just a tad too much credit, especially if you start including regular freelancers and gaijin.

I just made up the number but I wouldn't count gaijin since they come and go each tour and a lot of them are pretty average. For regulars, I'd have her above Ruaka, Shiki, Hanan, AZM, and Hiromi. Momo will probably pass her once she gets the rust off but they were pretty even in their match on 11/19. She may be better than Tam, have to see more of how she adapts to Stardom's style. Hana is still more style than substance but I really enjoyed her match against Mika so hard to say which is a better wrestler in general. I've never been a Natsu fan so I'd rank Kris ahead of her. So I'd have her pretty middle of the pack, but she offers something different so I generally find her matches entertaining.

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7 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

...she's only made about five youtube videos in the last year so referring to her as a "youtuber" just shows a general lack of knowledge (or an inability to research).

My reply pretty much implies that (can't be bothered to) as I'm not interested in her work. I was just curious as to what/who she was as I see her continuously popping up on my TL thanks to TDE... Also her Wiki says she's a YouTuber so that's why I referred to her as such.

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29 minutes ago, Edwin said:

My reply pretty much implies that (can't be bothered to) as I'm not interested in her work. I was just curious as to what/who she was as I see her continuously popping up on my TL thanks to TDE... Also her Wiki says she's a YouTuber so that's why I referred to her as such.

I just found it odd you cared enough to bring up the subject on a message board and check out her wiki but not enough to do two minutes of actually looking up facts about her, numerous articles have been written about her, ranging from Uproxx to Vice to Reuters. And I wouldn't consider wikipedia a great source, for many years Bull Nakano's page said she wrestled in tag matches with Dump Matsumoto in 2001 until it finally annoyed me enough that I edited it out. My only wikipedia edit so far, I consider myself 1 for 1 with being useful on the Internet.

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2 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

I just made up the number but I wouldn't count gaijin since they come and go each tour and a lot of them are pretty average. For regulars, I'd have her above Ruaka, Shiki, Hanan, AZM, and Hiromi. Momo will probably pass her once she gets the rust off but they were pretty even in their match on 11/19. She may be better than Tam, have to see more of how she adapts to Stardom's style. Hana is still more style than substance but I really enjoyed her match against Mika so hard to say which is a better wrestler in general. I've never been a Natsu fan so I'd rank Kris ahead of her. So I'd have her pretty middle of the pack, but she offers something different so I generally find her matches entertaining.

I wasn't talking ranking as a wrestler opposed to their ranking within the promotion itself. In ring wise I can put Tam and Hana over Kris rather easily. Same with Tora.

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Kris Wolf is all about the character/personality. If you're looking for technically great/very good wrestling matches then you're looking in the wrong place with her. She provides something different to most and plays her character well. It's very subjective and completely depends on what you're in to. I think wrestling needs a good balance of top talent but various personalities and characters. Comedy works well when it's done right and she manages to do that quite well at times.

She's very marmite. Some will absolutely get her and love her. Others won't get it at all and find it ridiculously cringey. That's wrestling and life in general. For me personally wrestling needs over the top characters like her. 

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It's not like joshi doesn't have its fair share of historical comedic lower midcard talent either. I don't think anyone got up in arms about Tanny Mouse.

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2 hours ago, Sasha said:

It's not like joshi doesn't have its fair share of historical comedic lower midcard talent either. I don't think anyone got up in arms about Tanny Mouse.

You say that, but Mike Lorefice of quebrada.net (who I like) actively hated Bolshoi Kid.  Some people just want workrate up and down the card. Which is there prerogative of course, I do like some variety though.

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On 12/12/2017 at 10:44 AM, Keep Calm, Akira Hokuto On said:

Wolf's ringwork is decent but unspectacular, imo.  I find the gimmick very polarizing.  She has some charisma and seems a decent fit for Stardom, but she looks like the least intimidating wrestler ever, and the profanity and obscene gestures seem like an overly calculated attempt to be shocking.  I feel like I'm watching a teletubbie try to get away from his image and be be taken seriously for more adult roles by swearing on-camera for no reason.

You probably won't be surprised that Japanese promoters quite often tell Americans to shout profanities. 

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15 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

You say that, but Mike Lorefice of quebrada.net (who I like) actively hated Bolshoi Kid.  Some people just want workrate up and down the card. Which is there prerogative of course, I do like some variety though.

I don't count Lorefice. I tended to ignore him about comedic characters, or anything that's relatively harmless. Meanwhile, I liked Gami the comedy heel better than Mikiko Futagami the submission expert.

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Don't think anyone was really big on her so its not too surprising. I'm disappointed about it since I think she just finally started to show her real potential again, but I don't really think of her as a big loss despite that.

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Had both Io and Kairi left, Bito retiring would have been a big loss but as it is right now, it seems like they can get by without her. Not that it isn't disappointing.

Her last match will be her and Takumi Iroha against Meiko Satomura and Toni Storm on Christmas Eve.

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Yea, I mean losing a top wrestler is never great but Yoko Bito never really connected with me so on a personal level it doesn't really matter she is retiring. Maybe it will give someone like Konami, HZK, or Jungle Kyona a chance to move up the card a bit.

Takumi Iroha is also on those 'big' shows that Stardom announced for the Spring, so looks like they reached some type of agreement to use her more. Which is exciting, I'm a fan of Iroha and think she brings something different to the table in her matches than what Stardom currently has. Since I'm probably the only American with a subscription to Marvelous's online service, it'll be nice for her to get a bit more exposure to international fans.

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I don't really see anyone moving to take Bito's spot. None of the people below it are quite ready and still have  bunch of time to do interesting matches with each other as they improve. Really Bito was in a weird spot between the main event and people like Kyona & HZK. Had she stuck around she probably would have just served as a wall to surpass on the way to the main event.

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1 minute ago, Eivion said:

I don't really see anyone moving to take Bito's spot. None of the people below it are quite ready and still have  bunch of time to do interesting matches with each other as they improve. Really Bito was in a weird spot between the main event and people like Kyona & HZK. Had she stuck around she probably would have just served as a wall to surpass on the way to the main event.

Well they have to, is kinda my point. Upper mid card/main eventer will have a blank spot, Io and Mayu can't wrestle each other on every show so someone is going to have to step up. I don't mean in two weeks time but by March or so I expect them to make a real effort to have someone elevated to at least be a respected challenger. It could very well be Iroha if she is going to be enough of a regular.

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