Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

2023 Joshi Puroresu Discussion Thread

RIPPA

By RIPPA
in JAPAN

 Share

Recommended Posts

Stefanie Sparkleface

Stefanie Sparkleface

Posted
Posted

Ice Ribbon's show just wrapped up.

Spoiler

Ibuki Hoshi won the Infinity Title and Misa Kagura and Sumika Yanagawa won the International Ribbon Tag Titles!

All six of the Challenger debuts were shockingly polished (Nanae Furukawa was especially impressive), and it is way past my bedtime. Great show, well worth tracking down, I'm going to sleep!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stefanie Sparkleface

Stefanie Sparkleface

Posted
Posted (edited)

Good morning!

So thoughts on the Ice Ribbon show, spoilerized since you can get the PPV still and watch for yourself if you want (which I recommend).

Spoiler

I'm obviously thrilled with Ibuki winning the title, she's my favorite in Ice Ribbon at the moment. She and YuuRI had a great match that may have gone a bit too long at just under 22 minutes, they probably could've shaved off a couple of minutes because both were exhausted. That said, they kept me in it the whole way and Ibuki finally hitting the Ibuning Star after getting Good Ibuning reversed on her a few times was great. I laid out how Ibuki has a bunch of potential challengers a few days ago, and one wasn't named last night, everyone just let her sort of soak in the moment.

The fourth and fifth matches are the ones that folks will probably complain about most. I'll start with the fourth one, as Dark Silueta and Tsukina Umino beat Hikari Minami and Hinata. This got criticism on all sides. Japanese fans weren't into Tsukina's brawling and chair usage. Dark Silueta's style also just doesn't mesh with Ice Ribbon whatsoever. Hikari Minami and Hinata tried their best, and although Hikari messed up her springboard, she recovered quickly and went for a top rope dive instead. Hikari sold the finish so well people thought she was legitimately injured. Bless her, she tried to save this.

The fifth match was the International Ribbon Tag Titles, and the complaint there seems to be coming from Western fans who didn't like that Sumika Yanagawa and Misa Kagura - who are from JTO - won the titles. This is one where there's a split between the two kinds of fans, as Western fans have had a major issue with Sumika and Misa, and it seems to be because they win a good amount of matches in spite of belonging to a different organization, almost as if the only purpose for them on shows should be to lose matches. Now that they've won the titles (and beat Western favorite Yappy to do so), that criticism will get louder from that side of things. But that said, both Sumika and Misa have said they love working for Ice Ribbon and consider it a second home, which notably got retweeted by Neoplus (Ice Ribbon's parent organization). Sumika and Misa also appear on dojo shows with the same frequency as the regular roster, rarely missing a show, and the roster included them in the sign-off at the end of the show, something they do not do with freelancers or outside talent. Japanese fans don't seem to mind the win either, so this is going to be a case where Western fans will have to learn how to accept the difference in sensibilities. (Personally, I'm not bothered; I like Misa, and I think Sumika has rapidly improved in recent months.)

Hikari Shimizu and Kaho Matsushita looked good and their team might be the next challengers for Sumika and Misa. Their match was set up for them to win, as they faced Kiku and HisokA, and they did what they were supposed to. I have no notes aside from that Kiku is not very good in the ring but I like her a whole lot anyway.

As mentioned, all of the Challenger debuts looked great. Nanae Furukawa had really slick submission skills and brought a cheering section (literally one side of the building was cheering for her and wearing her shirt), and Mifu Ashida was also a standout in her match, but really, all six looked like they had been wrestling for a year, not like they were in their first match. There were obviously some rookie rough edges that need to be sanded off, but their energy is very high and if they stick around, there is a very bright future indeed. Any concerns I had about their skill were totally washed away and I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes next for them.

Edited by Sparkleface
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
assfax

assfax

Posted
Posted (edited)

Midsummer Festival: Okay, I was loving this show from the start.  Ami is a Gori-san fangirl confirmed.  When Dump started coming out I was like "Aw shit this dude is fucking immobile this is going to suck she needs a helper in a mask just to get out there"  Then, she gets in the ring and I am transported to a fantasyland where Kabiki-punk abelitas run roughshod and everything is alright.  I already knew Kyoko Inoue was awesome but all the old ladies seriously brought the COOL.  When Jaguar Yokota is asking if she should join Oedo Tai I'm all whoopin' and a hollering in the middle of nowhere.  She got that local VFW last call sexy voice!

 

8/26 Nagoya STARdom.  Could this be the perfect show?  I thought 5.20.2023 was magic in a bottle but this was seriously amazing.  Natsuko vs. Tam 

Spoiler

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

My dream 5★Star GP final is Hazuki Vs. Momo but I'll settle for Maika Vs. Suzu Suzuki.

Edited by assfax
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ka-to

ka-to

Posted
Posted

I didn't notice that Dump had a masked helper. The usual one is Sasori/Fuji. ZAP was ZAP T (Tomoko Watanabe).

I loved the main event so much. I was at the Nana Momo final on 1.4.2005 and the Momo final on 1.7.2005. Jaguar even sold, hit hard, and let them have the spotlight when the match was over.

Jaguar even does her talento schtick with her husband in semi-public. She came to Kyoko's bar one time when I was there. Within 15 minutes she yelled at him and slapped him on top of the head. She is "on" in that kind of situation. She asked me if I wanted a picture with her before I could ask her.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
quackhell

quackhell

Posted
Posted
26 minutes ago, Eivion said:

The new American joshi company the news sites have been teasing finally announced themselves and their first show officially.

https://sukeban.com/

https://twitter.com/Sukeban_World/status/1697610264437277059

Looks like a Lucha Underground type of thing.

They have a lot of great talent on board, but I would say I am cautiously optimistic. The LU approach can be a lot of fun or embarrassingly bad. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stefanie Sparkleface

Stefanie Sparkleface

Posted
Posted

Looks interesting to me. There's clearly some money involved in this, as well as some background planning, but the question will be how long that money will stay involved. Then again, the first show sold out within a couple of hours.

Ram Kaichow being involved makes me optimistic because if anyone can pull off a ridiculous concept, it'd be her.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stefanie Sparkleface

Stefanie Sparkleface

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

The longest running feud in Joshi history ends tonight. 😞

  Reveal hidden contents

Eiger (Mizuki Endo, who has been wrestling since 1991) is retiring thus ending the longstanding rivalry with Sakura Hirota.

Image

 

Spoiler

Ice Ribbon is giving Aiger a farewell gift that she will truly enjoy - they're letting her terrorize a child one more time.

eid_3547_img5.jpg

 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Eivion

Eivion

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, Sparkleface said:

Looks interesting to me. There's clearly some money involved in this, as well as some background planning, but the question will be how long that money will stay involved. Then again, the first show sold out within a couple of hours.

Ram Kaichow being involved makes me optimistic because if anyone can pull off a ridiculous concept, it'd be her.

This mostly echoes my thoughts. I have some cautious optimism since supposedly some of the people behind this were working with/for NJPW at one point.

Someone on the Stardom reddit did some digging and found out the name of the company owning all of this is Dream Slam Productions so you at least know they are joshi fans. Going off the trademark application and previous rumors it sounds like the plan is to try and make a decent amount of money from merchandise. It honestly makes the current direction make even more sense.

Edited by Eivion
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Elsalvajeloco

Elsalvajeloco

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, quackhell said:

They have a lot of great talent on board, but I would say I am cautiously optimistic. The LU approach can be a lot of fun or embarrassingly bad. 

The Harajuku Stars look great. It's something out of a Takashi Miike movie about a gang of female serial killers who have a fondness for beach party films.

Arisa "Don't Call Me Shotzi" Nakajima had me do a double take. It took me a second to recognize her. Also, it's good to see that Risa got to keep the Party City costumes in the divorce.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stefanie Sparkleface

Stefanie Sparkleface

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Eivion said:

This mostly echoes my thoughts. I have some cautious optimism since supposedly some of the people behind this were working with/for NJPW at one point.

Someone on the Stardom reddit did some digging and found out the name of the company owning all of this is Dream Slam Productions so you at least know they are joshi fans. Going off the trademark application and previous rumors it sounds like the plan is to try and make a decent amount of money from merchandise. It honestly makes the current direction make even more sense.

This is probably going to sound harsher than I intend, but whether or not the people running this are fans doesn't matter all that much to me. Someone doesn't need to be a fan to recognize the need for high quality production or something to interest people into watching. It's healthy to involve people from outside of your production bubble to recognize when a product is becoming unapproachable. It's very easy when you've been looking at your run of show and your production materials for 16 hours a day months on end to go "well I love everything about this, everyone else should too", but not understand why 99.9% of the world might not share the same enthusiasm. Having that outside perspective is valuable. If they are having a team (or heck, even just a person) to market outside of the team managing the actual in-ring aspect, they're already leagues ahead of most indie wrestling companies.

There's another show, Kitsune, that's being put on by a fan in October out in Los Angeles. I personally would enjoy it, I like how the lineup looks and I'd buy the stream. No idea how that translates to anyone else, though, because I don't know if it's very approachable to someone who's not intrinsically familiar with joshi, and I dunno, I want more people in the tent than outside of it if I'm running a business. But hey, good on them for running the show they want with their money, I hope they get a chance to do a second show.

What matters to me about who's running Sukeban are:
- Are they interested in putting out something that is enjoyable to watch
- Are the wrestlers and staff being compensated fairly and equitably for their time, and treated respectfully during their tenure

And that's pretty much it. I'll give almost anything a try at least once.

... a little unnerved about a creepy baroque clown character but I'll get over it.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kevin Wilson

Kevin Wilson

Posted
Posted

I'm definitely in the "wait and see" camp on Sukeban as I've just seen too many promotions, good ideas, and good intentions not work out. It seems to have potential, they have the talent, but what will matter is the execution and if it fills a niche to make enough money to make it worth continuing to fly out that much talent. Its probably not going to be my "thing" as far as what I look for in my wrestling but I'm still excited to see Joshi wrestling presented in a different way to US fans, and as a fan of Aoi, Maya, and Ram I'm going to naturally hope it succeeds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Eivion

Eivion

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, Sparkleface said:

This is probably going to sound harsher than I intend, but whether or not the people running this are fans doesn't matter all that much to me. Someone doesn't need to be a fan to recognize the need for high quality production or something to interest people into watching. It's healthy to involve people from outside of your production bubble to recognize when a product is becoming unapproachable. It's very easy when you've been looking at your run of show and your production materials for 16 hours a day months on end to go "well I love everything about this, everyone else should too", but not understand why 99.9% of the world might not share the same enthusiasm. Having that outside perspective is valuable. If they are having a team (or heck, even just a person) to market outside of the team managing the actual in-ring aspect, they're already leagues ahead of most indie wrestling companies.

There's another show, Kitsune, that's being put on by a fan in October out in Los Angeles. I personally would enjoy it, I like how the lineup looks and I'd buy the stream. No idea how that translates to anyone else, though, because I don't know if it's very approachable to someone who's not intrinsically familiar with joshi, and I dunno, I want more people in the tent than outside of it if I'm running a business. But hey, good on them for running the show they want with their money, I hope they get a chance to do a second show.

What matters to me about who's running Sukeban are:
- Are they interested in putting out something that is enjoyable to watch
- Are the wrestlers and staff being compensated fairly and equitably for their time, and treated respectfully during their tenure

And that's pretty much it. I'll give almost anything a try at least once.

... a little unnerved about a creepy baroque clown character but I'll get over it.

I like it when the people working on these things are fans of it as well, but I don't really disagree with you on any of this.

Edited by Eivion
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stefanie Sparkleface

Stefanie Sparkleface

Posted
Posted

Some Ice Ribbon roster news!

As I think most expected, Asahi's loan to Actwresgirlz is now a permanent transfer, and her affiliation with Ice Ribbon ended today. I mentioned a couple of weeks back that I didn't see where she fit in the current landscape, and now I don't have to wonder anymore. I hope she is happy and successful in her new venture!

Kiku will be moving from Ice Ribbon to Hot Shushu, mentioning that Hot Shushu's schedule is better for her and her family. Her family runs a restaurant, she's the manager, and Kiku does miss a fair amount of shows, so this isn't too much of a surprise. Both companies are under the Neoplus umbrella, so think of this as though someone transfers from Tokyo Joshi Pro or DDT to Ganbare.

The two idols, Aiki and Amu Yumesaki, who wrestled their debut matches in January and March respectively and then vanished, are both done with wrestling, at least for now. I suspect this was the anticipated result for both considering both are busy on the idol circuit and it seemed unlikely they would do much of anything else considering they went right back to idol activities. Chalk this one up to a publicity stunt, I think. The only reason it's considered roster news is because they were listed on Ice Ribbon's roster, and now they won't be.

Yappy also is having a surgery tomorrow that she says she'd been putting off, and she'll miss the next couple of months. Hopefully she heals up well and comes back strong!

This will open up plenty of room for the Challengers to start filtering into shows. Mifu Ashida was part of today's main event, teaming with Ancham and YuuRI to lose to Ibuki Hoshi, Sumika Yanagawa, and Misa Kagura, and Nanae Furukawa made her dojo show debut yesterday. Tsukina Umino said she wants to be the first dojo show opponent for all of the Challengers, as she was for Nanae, so smells like an angle there as each of them start to work their way in. Asuka Fujitaki said she's available for the rest of September, and after the Aiki/Amu news, Yuuki Minami went out of her way to confirm that after the 17th, her idol group CLIPCLIP will no longer be performing on Saturdays or Sundays to make her available for Ice Ribbon. Still waiting to see what's coming next for Mayumi Koike and Yuu Hanaya, but Yuu posted that she was making changes to her gear, so I bet she'll up and running soon enough. Ice Ribbon isn't a "you must dedicate your life to us!" kind of promotion, so this isn't too surprising to see people debut then take some time to start regularly popping up on shows.

Oh, and related to today's show, Aiger ran loose in the crowd and scared a bunch of children in her final Ice Ribbon appearance before retiring, so obviously she had a blast.

Anyway, your TL;DR: three people who weren't on shows anymore will continue to not be on shows, someone who was essentially a part-timer is moving to a better situation for her, Yappy's hurt but she'll be okay, and the rookies are starting to pop up on shows as they get their out of wrestling lives together. I think that's everything? Phew!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stefanie Sparkleface

Stefanie Sparkleface

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Dammit Ice Ribbon, I just updated the roster page and now I have to do it again. They keep me busy anyway.

It's like the cliche about Virginia weather, if you don't like it, just wait a day and it'll be different.

/me checks her weather app

What the hell, it's going to be 20 degrees hotter tomorrow?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dragonzombie

dragonzombie

Posted
Posted

Stardom

Spoiler

Natsupoi (c) and Saori Anou (c) vs Utami Hayashishita and AZM for the Goddess tags is next

I read Starlight Kid and Mayu are eliminated from winning the 5SGP. 


NEW BLOOD WEST 1, on Nov 7. I wonder what's the difference?


UWF Rules Match on 10/09, Mina vs Syuri. Looks like WWE's Asuka sorta memed this into reality.


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...