Joshi Puroresu Discussion Thread

[Eivion]

Thanks for the info. Disappointed to hear the show felt rushed. I wasn't expecting much from Tessa/Bito. Tessa was the worst performer in the tournament, and Bito is improving but still needs some time before she can provide a quality main event. I was looking most forward to Io/KLR anyways as their SWA title match was great stuff despite being short. I will be pleased as long as that one delivered something good.

[Kevin Wilson]

Just got done watching it, the main event was definitely flat. There were a few issues, but the biggest was that Tessa was virtually unknown to the crowd, from looking at the results she had only wrestled one singles match in Tokyo at all up to that point and that was on 8/21 vs. Momo. Then they had Tessa in control most of the match, and not in overly interesting fashion as she isn't very good, so the crowd was just dead. Since Bito came back pretty recently she doesn't have the fan following of Kairi or Io, who may have been able to make it work a bit better. Add in some clear miscommunications and awkward moments and it was a pretty disappointing final.

I loved Io/KLR though so there was that. 

[Kevin Wilson]

Although I will say that I think Hojo vs. Mimura was the best match of Mimura's young career. I don't think that Hojo is the best wrestler in Stardom (not because she is bad, but because she is in the same promotion as Io) but she just has so much emotion and passion for it, its impossible not to root for her and get roped into her matches. I am sure it helps they are likely friends and train together but they had really good chemistry, I doubt Mimura will ever be on Hojo's level but I look forward to them having more matches in the future once Mimura is built up a bit.

[Eivion]

That pleases me to hear with Mimura. I thought she had a nice moment or two during the tournament but no match that really stood out. Hopefully they up the show soon on Stardom World.

[donsem43]

12 hours ago, JML said:

Su Yung. She wrestles regularly for SHINE. 

Go watch her match with Madison Eagles from Shine 30. If that doesn't sell you on her nothing will.

[Ligerbusa]

On 9/13/2016 at 10:28 AM, JML said:

Does anybody find it weird that neither the English Twitter account nor Courtney Stewart formally announced that she was leaving the tournament?

Not even a "hey, I'm sorry I can't complete  the rest of the tournament" tweet from her. Only the Japanese account announced that she was going to be out of the tournament because of what was loosely translated as "family misfortune".

Quote

There was a woman wrestler named Courtney Stewart (the girlfriend of new WWE signee Tommy End) from Scotland in the current Stardom singles tournament. She left the promotion in the middle of the tour without informing anyone. She just disappeared, flew home, and when she got home she called Rossy Ogawa, who runs the promotion, and told him she left. She had stated two different physical confrontations on the tour with Tessa Blanchard as the reason she went home.

- Wrestling Observer

Anyone else a fan of scrappy underdog, Natsumi Maki?

[Eivion]

If that is legit it annoys me even further that Tessa made the finals. Still not sure why Stewart left before making them aware of the situation.

And Maki was solid throughout the tournament. I would never have guessed her managing to look that good 3-4 months ago. I wish she was an actual member of the roster.

[Kevin Wilson]

Honestly, I think Stardom just needs to be a bit more careful who they bring over. That's two wrestlers this year that vanished mid-tour without as much of a word, but both were really young wrestlers on their first tour in Japan. Being away from home/in a different country/limited (or no?) friends isn't for everyone, it does take a certain level of maturity. Without knowing the nature of the disagreement I couldn't really blame Tessa as who knows if it was even true if that is what Courtney claimed or what caused it.

[donsem43]

Apparently, Tessa has been involved in several backstage incidents on indie shows so Stardom had to know that she a rep for something like this. They probably felt it was worth a shot since she might get them some more subscriptions based on her name valve. I'm surprised that some like Tessa, who is trying to get a WWE deal, keeps getting into incidents like this. You would think she would be trying harder to avoid stuff like that.

Not saying that Stewart is innocent or right in what she did, she most likely just reacted badly to how the company handled the situation. If they are going to bring over more young foreigners they really need a representative like Melissa in UK/Europe. Somebody who knows the seen well and can judge who can handle being in Japan working for them.

[Trocar Slush Weasel]

10 hours ago, Ligerbusa said:

Anyone else a fan of scrappy underdog, Natsumi Maki?

Today's show in Osaka was your typical Osaka show but I will say that I thought Natsumi had the most interesting match, if not the best, with Kimura.  Had to leave before the main event so that might have been better.

Speaking of Tessa, I'm 53% sure she went into business for herself tonight.  All of a sudden her and Kagetsu start no-selling their stuff.  After the match, I'm pretty sure I saw KLR stop Blue Nikita from going after Tessa.  Maybe Ricochet being in attendance gave her some entitlement.  Also, it looks like Kris took a bad shot to the jaw to the point that Kimura almost pulled her out of the Oedo Tai/Foreigners tag match.

[Eivion]

I really hope they don't bring Tessa back.

[Hoope]

1 hour ago, Trocar Slush Weasel said:

Today's show in Osaka was your typical Osaka show but I will say that I thought Natsumi had the most interesting match, if not the best, with Kimura.  Had to leave before the main event so that might have been better.

Speaking of Tessa, I'm 53% sure she went into business for herself tonight.  All of a sudden her and Kagetsu start no-selling their stuff.  After the match, I'm pretty sure I saw KLR stop Blue Nikita from going after Tessa.  Maybe Ricochet being in attendance gave her some entitlement.  Also, it looks like Kris took a bad shot to the jaw to the point that Kimura almost pulled her out of the Oedo Tai/Foreigners tag match.

12 stitches

 

Good job, Rossy. Hope this huge drop in quality this year was worth it

[Kevin Wilson]

I keep wondering if this is just an experiment and how they think it is going. They just started pulling newer/younger foreigners onto every tour within the last year or so. I figured it was because they wanted to run shows in other countries so they wanted to build up some wrestlers the locals there may know, but it seems to have gone beyond that. For every success they find, like Kay Lee Ray, there are several others that don't work out and negatively impact the show quality. Then they don't use the bigger native Freelancers whom are confirmed to be good wrestlers and their fans know well (like Shida or Syuri, not that I know they are interested but just as examples). They may be trying too hard to look like a 'global' brand or to distance their appearance from other Joshi promotions, as their attendance has stayed about the same and it can't be cheaper than using local talent (their financials aren't really my concern, more the match quality of bringing over inexperienced gaijins). Before they focused on longer tours with gaijins that were solid so they could get chemistry with the wrestlers and the crowd would get to know them (Alpha Female and Skater, for example).

If Tessa was an issue on the tour that would be at least the third gaijin that had issues this year (that I know of). I like that it varies the cards as they don't have a lot of their own contracted wrestlers, I just wish the ones they brought over were a bit better as generally they seem to be getting cheaper/younger talent instead of wrestlers that have an impressive resume. I figured this would be a bit of a rebuilding year for Stardom as they had a fair number of rookies debut in the last year, so I'm interested to see how 2017 goes.

[Eivion]

3 hours ago, Hoope said:

12 stitches

 

Good job, Rossy. Hope this huge drop in quality this year was worth it

Who got 12 stitches?

[Trocar Slush Weasel]

3 hours ago, Eivion said:

Who got 12 stitches?

That would be Kris Wolf.  She and Toni Storm were paired up on the "let's take it to the outside spot" and I assume she just took a bad bump into the chairs.

[Kevin Wilson]

I am watching an old THE WOMAN show from 2006 and Becky Lynch is on it. To be honest, I watched the entire match first without realizing it was Becky Lynch, I don't feel too bad since it was 10 years ago but I probably should have known that Rebecca Knox was her old gimmick name. I blame it on the fact I didn't get into women's promotions until 2014 or so. Here is her pre-match promo, she is still young so its surprising she was already doing Japan tours at 18 and 19 years old.

 

[Eivion]

7 minutes ago, Trocar Slush Weasel said:

That would be Kris Wolf.  She and Toni Storm were paired up on the "let's take it to the outside spot" and I assume she just took a bad bump into the chairs.

Thought that might be, just need to be sure. I couldn't find anything on it, thanks.

[Kevin Wilson]

10 minutes ago, Eivion said:

Thought that might be, just need to be sure. I couldn't find anything on it, thanks.

Yea it didn't show up in their pictures, so either it was really late in the match or they intentionally didn't post pictures of it. Or both.

[Trocar Slush Weasel]

9 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Yea it didn't show up in their pictures, so either it was really late in the match or they intentionally didn't post pictures of it. Or both.

It was early.  She was holding a towel to her chin thinking she was bleeding from the outside but I'm pretty sure it was inside her mouth because I could see blood coming out.  That's probably why it was so many stitches too.

[Kevin Wilson]

I am compiling a list of gaijin wrestlers that Stardom has had over for tours in 2016, with the plan being tomorrow or Monday doing an article about it and ranking them. Am I missing any?

Kellie Skater
Evie
Kay Lee Ray
Chelsea Green
Kaitlin Diemond
Santana Garrett
Viper
Lizzy Styles
Diosa Atenea
Queen Maya
Alpha Female
Toni Storm
Courtney Stewart
Tessa Blanchard
Chelsea (it looks like she is just a regular touring wrestler at this point since she hasn't wrestled in Stardom since 8/5)
Blue Nikita
Shanna
Leah Vaughan

Excluded: Cat Power (just one match I think), Alex Lee (regular gaijin Freelancer throughout Japan), and Kris Wolf (contracted wrestler).

[donsem43]

8 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

For every success they find, like Kay Lee Ray, there are several others that don't work out and negatively impact the show quality. Then they don't use the bigger native Freelancers whom are confirmed to be good wrestlers and their fans know well (like Shida or Syuri, not that I know they are interested but just as examples). They may be trying too hard to look like a 'global' brand or to distance their appearance from other Joshi promotions, as their attendance has stayed about the same and it can't be cheaper than using local talent (their financials aren't really my concern, more the match quality of bringing over inexperienced gaijins). Before they focused on longer tours with gaijins that were solid so they could get chemistry with the wrestlers and the crowd would get to know them (Alpha Female and Skater, for example).

It doesn't surprise me that they don't use more freelancers since they don't do much with the ones they do use. If you look back at the end of the March Korakuen show, you could have thought that they were going to build to a big Hojo/Matsumoto match and have Kagetsu freshen up the mix at the top but neither of those things have really happened.

With the foreigners, they keep cycling through them without having any of them create a connection with the fans. Stardom doesn't have that Hansen/Norton regular foreign star. I don't think that there's another promotion in Japan that wouldn't have brought back someone like Evie right away after the showing she had at the beginning of the year. 

[Kevin Wilson]

30 minutes ago, donsem43 said:

It doesn't surprise me that they don't use more freelancers since they don't do much with the ones they do use. If you look back at the end of the March Korakuen show, you could have thought that they were going to build to a big Hojo/Matsumoto match and have Kagetsu freshen up the mix at the top but neither of those things have really happened.

With the foreigners, they keep cycling through them without having any of them create a connection with the fans. Stardom doesn't have that Hansen/Norton regular foreign star. I don't think that there's another promotion in Japan that wouldn't have brought back someone like Evie right away after the showing she had at the beginning of the year. 

The one thing I'll say in their defense of that is its possible some of the ones they brought over this year aren't interested in being regulars, Evie and Kay Lee Ray for example may not want to be away from home half the year like some wrestlers don't mind doing. Toni Storm has been around for a few months and she has a belt so she will likely be back, and Viper has been on a few tours and has remained protected so they may have found a few they like. Santana has been announced for a tour next month, at least the crowd is familar with her. I just hope they pick the best few and don't keep experimenting with new young/inexperienced wrestlers every tour forever.

[donsem43]

So while Stardom was running the 5*GP, JWP reran the King of Trios final as a series of singles matches plus had a main event that was probably better than anything on the Stardom show

Quote

* JWP vs. Sendai Girls : Hanako Nakamori def. Cassandra Miyagi with Destiny Hammer (8:25)
* JWP vs. Sendai Girls : Command Bolshoi def. DASH Chisako with Pico Knee Smash (8:56)
* JWP vs. Sendai Girls : Meiko Satomura def. Manami Katsu with Death Valley Bomb (10:38) 
* Best Friends ((W)Arisa Nakajima & Tsukasa Fujimoto) def. Leon & (L)Rabbit Miyu with Dragon Suplex Hold (21:46)

 

[Kevin Wilson]

1 hour ago, donsem43 said:

So while Stardom was running the 5*GP, JWP reran the King of Trios final as a series of singles matches plus had a main event that was probably better than anything on the Stardom show

 

I'm not a big Rabbit Miyu fan (I think she is fine but not in my Top 25 Joshi wrestlers), so it would depend for me on how much she was in the match.  I doubt it topped Io/Kay Lee Ray for me though :). I'd be interested in Bolshoi/Chisako probably more though. Hope they taped it.

[Kevin Wilson]

I need to do some type of "Beginner's Guide to Joshi" one day since people kept requesting it on Twitter, but I wanted to make sure everyone here knew about my Recommended Matches List with links to the videos. It has lots of stuff from this year, some stuff from last year, and then some older matches. Not everything is ****+, I wanted to have a variety of matches from different promotions but I think all are good anyway. Or in some cases just unique since I am not pretending that Io vs. Mio from 2010 was a high end match.