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10 Celebrity Guests Who Should've Stayed In South Park – Page 9

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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