Hikari Minami has been upset on social media for a few days about Mifu Ashida using the blockbuster suplex to pin Asuka Fujitaki on Sunday, claiming that it's her move and nobody consulted her to use it. She's been making a lot of posts about it, and only Mifu's trainer Mio Shirai has really addressed it, saying that the blockbuster is a good, efficient move and she likes teaching those kind of moves to her students. Kaho Matsushita and Kyuuri also use the blockbuster, as proof of that concept.

Hikari's from an era where people had exclusive moves and image colors, but Ice Ribbon has gotten away from that in recent years, to the point where anyone can use anyone else's moves. See, for example, in 2022 when Nao Ishikawa started using a rollup called Tachia Girl, then Asahi started using the exact same rollup, calling her version Chanmaru Boy. In 2020 and 2021, everyone went crazy over the European Clutch, with pretty much everyone winning at least one match with it. Yuuki Mashiro used Good Ibuning to pin Ibuki Hoshi in June 2022 as well. With regards to specific image colors, Totoro Satsuki was on record about changing her outfit from blue to red because Tsukasa Fujimoto encouraged her to do so, saying that "red is a champion's color". Ibuki did the same thing, changing from yellow/blue/green as her primary colors to black and red.

The timing would be strange to start an angle like this - Hikari is injured with a fractured elbow and won't be back until spring - but it would be a pretty good angle to run if so. Hikari had been gone for over a decade prior to coming back, and being a part of the company's past, it makes sense for her to take issue with how things changed while she's gone. When she's healthy, I could see her partnering with some additional veterans and having a bit of a generational war.

(Standard rule for me: I assume anything unfolding in public is an angle, lol)

Just watched highlights of Ibuki Hoshi vs Mifu Ashida for the ICExInfinity Championship...good lord Hoshi made mincemeat out of Ashida's chest with chops. It looked like she made a good showing of herself, but she paid some heavy dues in pain.

9 hours ago, quackhell said:

Just watched highlights of Ibuki Hoshi vs Mifu Ashida for the ICExInfinity Championship...good lord Hoshi made mincemeat out of Ashida's chest with chops. It looked like she made a good showing of herself, but she paid some heavy dues in pain.

Ibuki's a killer and Mifu is ridiculously tough, considering she's gotten taken to this point twice in her short career.

Yuka Sakazaki is finished with TJPW on Dec the 1st after "graduating". 

Saki Akai's retirement match is Nov 12.

10 hours ago, Kang said:

Yuka Sakazaki is finished with TJPW on Dec the 1st after "graduating". 

Saki Akai's retirement match is Nov 12.

her graduation show is Dec 6th

And your Goddess of Stardom tournament winners are...

Spoiler

Divine Kingdom (Maika & Megan Bayne), who beat Crazy Star (Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira), when Maika pinned Mei with a Michinoku Driver. They laid out Suzu together after the match.

 

You know it's a bad idea when a person who has stuck thumbtacks in her own head is like, "yeah, now that I think about it I dunno about this...".

Mayu Iwatani & Waka Tsukitama have been added to the IR list.

Those currently out:
Hanan (appendicitis)
Koguma (precautionary)
Mayu Iwatani (dislocated finger)
Momo Kohgo (unnamed injury)
Natsupoi (herniated disc)
Saki Kashima (undisclosed injury)
Aya Sakura (undisclosed injury)
Saya Kamitani (dislocated elbow)
Starlight Kid (injured ankle, returning this weekend)
Tam Nakano (knee injury)
Utami Hayashishita (herniated disc)
Waka Tsukiyama (herniated disc)

Stardom Gold Rush Spoilers

Spoiler

Bari Bari Bombers won the Moneyball match and retained the Artist titles over Wild Wing*Gori

Syuri def Aliss Ink via TKO.

Thekla challenged Mei Seira for the High Speed title.

AZM challenged Giulia for the NJPW Strong title.

Saori Anou and MIRAI beat the shit out of each other in the MOTN to a 30 minute draw.

Utami returned on commentary.

 

Edited November 18, 20232 yr by Ace

Change in Representative Director for Bushiroad Fight Co., Ltd.

https://wwr-stardom.com/news/231120-2/

Harada got "sacked"

Ohhh yikes. Tam and Natsupoi are not expected back for a while, so the red belt and tag belts have both been vacated.

-edit- in better news it seems Saya Kamitani might be ready to return - scratch that, Saya and Utami both return Nov 28

-edit again- wow regular newsbomb today

Maika and Megan Bayne will face a TBD team Dec 2 for the tag belts

Suzu Suzuki will face the winner of a 4 woman mini-tourney being held Nov 28 for the red belt at the Dec 29 Dream Queendom PPV

-Maika vs Ami Sohrei

-Mina Shirakawa vs Momo Watanabe

Meanwhile Suzu will defend her right to challenge vs Hazuki that same night (Nov 28)

Dec 2 will also see Mei Seira defend the High Speed against Thekla and Giulia defend the NJPW Strong against AZM

Edited November 20, 20232 yr by Mr. Monday Morning

Had a feeling Natsupoi and Tam wouldn't be back for a while and the belts would be vacated. Similarly figured a mini tournament was coming. The participants slightly surprise me. Feels like Hazuki should have been in Ami's spot though I guess they wanted Suzu to have good match to showcase on the show.

Guessing we get Maika/Suzu II. Not sure which one gets the go ahead to become champ. Would be nice to be surprised with a Momo victory though I don't think that is remotely likely. 

Surprised Kamitani and Utami are already coming back. Figured they would wait until one of the big December shows for Utami. Thought Saya would be early next year if only to train ab bit more in a different style from her usual

Edited November 20, 20232 yr by Eivion

Maika/Suzu seems like the obvious finals since there's a built in story.  Seems like no matter who wins it, they probably won't hold is past the April's big show.

I'd imagine Saya and Utami are coming back since they need to show some good will with all the injuries and need something to help sell tickets for the big Sumo show.

https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/283354

They apologised to the fans about the incident caused by the previous former Representative Director, with the start time change he did.

I read Stardom will be transitioning to the "new system", so which means more changes later.

 

Ice Ribbon, Stardom, Actwres Girl'z and PPP Tokyo will be involved in the Tokyo Comic Convention coming up this December.

The convention runs from the 8th to the 10th. Stardom is doing something on the 8th. Actwres (Actually Actring, which is slightly different) and PPP Tokyo on the 9th and Ice Ribbon on the 10th.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/e4cf3731a9e90466939adc946a14f84b2503c32b

Some Stardom wrestlers will also be in Singapore next week for the Bushiroad Expo Asia.

https://wwr-stardom.com/news/20231121_info2/

Giulia gave an interview where (translation and/or interpretation permitting) she intimated that certain decisions had been getting taken out of Rossy's hands. Might explain some of the decisions recently

https://kakutolog.info/wrestling/stardom/31761/

https://twitter.com/Himanshu_Doi/status/1727234229661299193

https://twitter.com/Himanshu_Doi/status/1727323139733102887

Some translations.

Derp. What is everyone’s 5 favorite Joshi matches of all time?

20 hours ago, Octopus said:

Derp. What is everyone’s 5 favorite Joshi matches of all time?

My opinion changes constantly and it's always based on mood, but right now as of this very minute it's...

- JWP vs AJW, Thunderqueen match (July 31, 1993)
- Mariko Yoshida vs. Hiromi Yagi (February 18, 1999)
- Dynamite Kansai vs. Hikari Fukuoka (April 8, 1997)
- Tsukasa Fujimoto vs. Ibuki Hoshi (September 18, 2021)
- Aja Kong vs. Michiko Ohmukai (February 18, 1998)

You may notice I like themes of underdogs/youth vs. experience. The Thunderqueen match is without exception my favorite match ever. Yoshida/Yagi is technical excellence. The rest are underdogs or younger wrestlers (Hikari, Ibuki, Michiko) looking to take down veterans/bruisers (Kansai, Tsukka, Aja) that they have never been able to conquer before. Sometimes they're trying to win titles, like Hikari Fukuoka or Ibuki Hoshi. Sometimes they've changed promotions and want a fresh start like Michiko Ohmukai and want to start by taking out the biggest name on the block. Sometimes they want to show they're not the kid they used to be to the person that practically helped raised them (Ibuki again). They're all compelling to me personally.

I am going to have to really sit down and think cause narrowing it down to five is going to be tough. If you're talking the two Dream Slam super cards or the JWP Thunder Queen 1993 show mentioned above, hell, you might have two or three of my favorite matches on the same show. I'll feel crappy just only listing 3 shows for five matches.

1 hour ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I am going to have to really sit down and think cause narrowing it down to five is going to be tough. If you're talking the two Dream Slam super cards or the JWP Thunder Queen 1993 show mentioned above, hell, you might have two or three of my favorite matches on the same show. I'll feel crappy just only listing 3 shows for five matches.

I thought about something from the Dream Slams (for the record, my favorite from those shows is Double Inoues vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Cutie Suzuki), but I also figured that those shows get plenty of love and I worry that they trend towards overhype. There are so many people that hype them up, and rightfully so, but I also think that there is a lot of great wrestling from that era that gets overlooked, so I prefer to lean towards... not exactly deeper cuts, but stuff that might be in danger of becoming lost to time (JWP and Arsion especially, not so much GAEA thanks to the GAEAism YouTube channel and there's some high quality stuff there too).

23 hours ago, Octopus said:

Derp. What is everyone’s 5 favorite Joshi matches of all time?

Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori - April, 2 1993
Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs. Bull Nakano & Grizzly Iwamoto - August 19, 1990
Kairi Hojo vs. Meiko Satomura - Jun 14, 2015/July 26, 2015
 

This is what I get off the top of my head. I love plenty more from different eras and still have plenty I haven't seen yet. These are ones I think back to more often than others and know I love. Hokuto/Kandori is probably up there as one of my favorites in general.

Edited November 24, 20232 yr by Eivion

And welcome to the injured list...

There is now only one active Cosmic Angel.

On 11/24/2023 at 1:24 PM, Eivion said:

Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori - April, 2 1993
Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs. Bull Nakano & Grizzly Iwamoto - August 19, 1990
Kairi Hojo vs. Meiko Satomura - Jun 14, 2015/July 26, 2015
 

This is what I get off the top of my head. I love plenty more from different eras and still have plenty I haven't seen yet. These are ones I think back to more often than others and know I love. Hokuto/Kandori is probably up there as one of my favorites in general.

I was thinking about the Survival Shout match. I absolutely hate a lot of the AJW "tag" matches from the late 80s/early 90s post Crush Gals that don't honor the traditional Australian rules cause why call it a tag match when you never actually tag. You just jump in the ring whenever and there is no real smooth transition unlike the Michinoku Pro multi man matches from back in the day. However, that match between Aja/Bison vs. Bull/Grizzly is some next level shit in that smash mouth style you only really saw in the territories or the 70s/80s All Japan with all the big names from the Funks to Hansen and Brody. It's almost like they gave too much even if for example, that kendo stick or modified kendo stick that Grizzly used was gimmicked. They beat the holy mess out of each other. It's basically the female equivalent of Cactus/Maxx Payne vs. The Nasty Boys from Spring Stampede 1994 on the ridiculously violent scale even down to the inconsequential finish of Grizzly being pinned with a German Suplex while the fans cannot possibly process the chaos that just took place. It more than redeems not following the actual tag team rules. Moreover, for what amounts to a heel vs. heel match, it totally helped build on Bull Nakano kinda totally breaking away from the lineage that started when she joined Dump's army and becoming her own woman.

 

 

I was working on a fun personal list for wrestling in general. I really love the 80’s and 90’s Joshi I have seen and a few cool people on here gave me recs in the past that I’ve LOVED. I’m really excited to watch the matches listed. Here’s mine, with the expectations of building to it soon.

1. Akira Hokuto vs Shinobu Kandori 
2. Devil Masami vs Chigusa Nagayo 
3. Bull Nakano vs Aja Kong (cage match with all the chains) 
4. Shinobu Kandori & Akira Hokuto vs Bull Nakano & Aja Kong    
5. Chigusa Nagayo vs Dump Matsumoto (Hair vs Hair 85)