1/6/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, UWA International Champion Decision Tournament 1st Round: Miss A vs. Itsuki Yamazaki 16:46
PA: JWP came up with some godawful names for their wrestlers. Koma Umeda got rid of hers quickly enough to become Plum Mariko, but poor Miss A was stuck with her hideous name for five years before she became Dynamite Kansai in August 1991. Yamazaki is an intelligent veteran technician, while A is basically a straight ahead brute. She's extremely dangerous, but predictable enough for a crafty veteran to exploit. Right from the start, A tried to run through Yamazaki, nailing a lariat and dragging her outside, but Yamazaki caught her leg and rammed it into the post. Yamazaki was focused on the leg, and used it to constantly cut off A's attempts to make comebacks and keep control. Yamazaki's attacks to the knee are good, keeping Kansai constantly looking for ways to fight back, but when she does land a blow, it's a devastating one, re-emphasizing how dangerous she is. Yamazaki remained a step ahead and wasn't afraid to get inside A's head either. After Kansai took a breather to regroup, Yamazaki spat water on her and taunted her to get back in. A obliged and played right into her hands, going for a predictable kick, which Yamazaki caught and once again put her back in her place. There was a nice simple leglock spot where Kansai tried power out of it, so Yamazaki quickly kicked her to put a stop to that and then reapplied it, forcing her to struggle to the ropes. A was finally able to answer Yamazaki, countering a forearm shot and hitting a Northern Light's suplex. She returned the favor with some leg work of her own, and there was another great little spot where A had a figure four on Yamazaki, and Yamazaki was trying to punch her way out of it with A kicking her in response. Little touches like that and Yamazaki getting brief reversals in and elevating herself for added pressure turned the simple spot we see in every match into something really interesting that you didn't want to take your eyes off of. A had Yamazaki in some trouble and was able to start teeing off with kicks. Yamazaki couldn't do much with A hammering away, but she was able to avoid a corner charge and quickly hit a missile dropkick. Yamazaki went up again and hit her reverse body attack. The diving headbutt was to come next, but A was stirring so Yamazaki thought better of it, opting to jump down and give her a piledriver first before going back up top to hit the headbutt. Kansai came back with a tombstone piledriver, but missed her diving headbutt. Yamazaki made it up first and charged, but only walked into a crushing lariat and A got the pin with it. The finish could be described as abrupt, but it did an effective job of putting over how dangerous A is. This was a really smart, and well worked match. ****

DC: Miss A wasted no time and attacked Itsuki Yamazaki even before the time keeper had the chance to ring the bell. Despite Miss A’s display of urgency, Yamazaki was able to turn things around by using Miss A’s own momentum against her, thanks to Yamazaki’s use of leverage and knowledge of counters. Yamazaki started focusing on Miss A’s left leg, perhaps in an effort to try to ground the energetic Miss A, intuiting that the powerful Miss A probably will be a lot less dangerous whenever she’s not kicking or running. Miss A would occasionally try to interrupt Yamazaki’s assault with some kicks, but due to the damage done by Yamazaki, Miss A would always be back in trouble rather quickly. It appeared that Miss A didn’t have a real answer for Yamazaki’s strategic approach. Miss A was relying on the right moment arriving for her to literally get a grip on Yamazaki. That moment came when Miss A caught Yamazaki and dropped her on the canvas. Miss A realized she had to now stay on top of Yamazaki if she didn’t want to lose momentum again. Miss A applied some holds that focused on Yamazaki’s legs, perhaps out of inspiration of Yamazaki’s successful approach earlier in the match. The match had become a lot more competitive now, as it had become clear that this wasn’t going to be the easy win it looked like it was going to be for Yamazaki. Ironically, things didn’t get as exciting as expected once the match became more competitive. This was because the urgency from earlier in the match had become less prevailing, and both workers were selling the damage more and more. However, Yamazaki turned this into a more exciting match with her dropkicks, bodypresses and flying headbutts off the ropes. As the match approached the finish, both wrestlers were now more clear about their intention to finish each other off, which helped increase the drama. Miss A managed to hit a tombstone piledriver on Yamazaki. However, Yamazaki was able to roll away when Miss A went for a flying headbutt. Apparently enough damage had been done to Yamazaki though, as she was selling the effects of the tombstone and previous moves, which put her in the position to get caught off guard by a Miss A lariat. Miss A went for the cover and won the match via pinfall. The match was definitely at its most interesting whenever Yamazaki was on offense. Even though Miss A wasn’t quite the Dynamite Kansai we came to know during the interpromotional era of joshi puroresu, it was clear that Miss A was indeed a strong opponent and someone with a lot of promise in this sport. It’s always a treat to watch a Yamazaki singles match against a strong opponent, and these matches from JWP 1991 remind us this former Jumping Bomb Angel is a wrestler that has been rather overlooked and underrated for the most part. ***¾

ML: While Noriyo Tateno limped through much of the last two decades of her career, her far superior old partner Yamazaki had a brief but excellent run as the top worker in JWP, only to sadly retire at 25 even though that was no longer manditory. Yamazaki was the closest disciple to Jaguar Yokota's style due to adopting the diversity of her game and her general cleverness, and thus was the best Manami Toyota in the game in 1991. This was a fantastic example of what she could do above & beyond the workrate style, an intense & well focused bout that felt desperate & meaningful despite not having tons of fast action. Though at heart the expected technician vs. bruiser bout, they blended the styles really well with A mirroring the leg focus & some of the holds to get revenge. Ultimately, Yamazaki was using a lot of misdirection to gain advantages and get near finishes, while A was the explosive one, either doing something spectacular or crashing and burning. This was a really good tournament for A, who was beginning to come into her own as the big powerhouse who could maul the smaller girls, but was still athletic enough to hang with them in the faster paced sequences. She had illusions of steamrolling Yamazaki, taking her out with a lariat before the bell then whipping her into the guard rail, but Yamazaki caught her kick & injured A's knee posting it. A is obviously the much more imposing physical specimen, but this match was all about the wily veteran Yamazaki beating her with guile. Yamazaki had the answers for A's entries, and kept working over the leg to make them even slower and more predictable. A would overwhelm Yamazaki once she took control, so it was very important for Yamazaki to maintain the advantage for as long as she could. Though less the case in JWP where they had more proper technical wrestling training, normally the early portions of these old joshi matches weren't that great because the matwork was random filler until it was time to start jumping around. That was definitely not the case here, as this wasn't just A laying around letting Yamazaki pretzel her, both were working hard to make the segments meaningful, with A trying to make comebacks only to have Yamazaki reinforce the storyline by cutting her off with another shot to the knee. A eventually regrouped on the outside, but her attempt at a hot comeback was immediately thwarted when Yamazaki again caught a kick & this time went right into a leg lock. Finally, A answered Yamazaki's forearm to escape the Northern Lights suplex with a really stiff one of her own, hit the suplex, and was able to sustain an advantage with the scorpion. A gave Yamazaki some of her own medicine working Yamazaki's knee, leading to one of the better little touches of the match where Yamazaki was desperately punching A's knee to try to get her to break the figure 4. Yamazaki was really thinking about how she was doing things, and she made some nice little adjustments to throw pressure onto A's knee such as a high elevation on the figure 4 reversal. A still sold her own knee here & there, but working Yamazaki's knee also allowed her own to recover, and she began to finally get into her powerhouse routine, really overwhelming Yamazaki with her kicks. Yamazaki eventually avoided a corner charge & hit a diving missile kick from one corner, a reverse body attack from another then climbed a third corner, but actually got down when A rolled to her side & piledrove her to set up a diving headbutt. I know this didn't really change much, but I really liked how Yamazaki reacted to the opponent's recovery rather than making A just lie on her side & take another flying move like probably everyone else would have done. A answered with her own tombstone piledriver, but missed the diving headbutt. Yamazaki was up a bit sooner, but by the time she charged at A, A was recovered enough to charge back & lay her out with the lariat for the win. Starting & ending with the lariat was nice & all, but while the best finish in the tournament, it still seemed forced & rushed, with Yamazaki having the out of that she sort of kicked out though she never really got her shoulder off the mat. In the end, the lead up was a lot more ahead of the curve than the finishing sequence, which is one of the problems with original JWP, the best matches get the rivalry and real competition aspects a lot more right than other joshi, especially anything beyond the 90's outside of the usual handful of exceptions (Yoshida, Kana, Arisa), but, and perhaps this to some extent goes hand in hand, they rarely have lengthy, go the extra mile finishing sequences to bolster them. Still, even with a less than satisfactory closing, this would have been fantastic as the tournament final, much less as the simple 1st round match that it actually was. The only real problem was nothing else here could top it. ****

2/11/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, UWA International Champion Decision Tournament Final: Miss A vs. Harley Saito 17:15
PA: This was the finals of the UWA International title tournament, and it was a hard fought, mat-based affair. They had a good tussle to start, with both avoiding the big blows and working on the mat with plenty of reversals. A was able to gain the advantage with a series of vicious elbow shots, but Harley pounced on her after a missed missile dropkick with brutal kicks and knees. They continued their struggle for control, but A was bigger and stronger, so she was always slightly ahead. A was able to really pull ahead and nullify Harley’s quick comebacks by injuring the leg with her submissions. Harley had no other real means of getting back into the match, so she was going to be reliant on A either making a mistake or catching a counter if she was given an opening to do so. The chance came, and she managed to slip out of a suplex and turn A's charge into a German Suplex hold, but couldn’t maintain the advantage and got swatted with a lariat. A tried to press on, but Harley was still able to counter enough to have some hope. She hit her Tiger suplex for a near fall, then tried a kneel kick, but Kansai grabbed the foot only to get rolled up for a two count, which Kansai reversed for a near fall of her own. This got the crowd cheering for Harley after they’d been rather sedate up to this point. A still had a bit more left than Harley though. She wound up for a lariat to put her away, but Harley was able to counter, and sneak in a flash pin to get the win. Really good wrestling from start to finish. I thought the first half was the strongest part of the match, afterward it turned into something more predictable and culminated with a finish that was a bit of a stretch to buy. They got the point across well enough though for Harley’s underdog story, and set the stage for Kansai to come back strongly at her later on. ***1/4

DC: These two were the final remaining contestants of this tournament. Miss A started off with a lot of urgency. However, this time, unlike in her match with Yamazaki, she was more careful and ready to not let the momentum get turned around so quickly. To her credit, Harley Saito didn’t panic and simply waited for Miss A to start making mistakes. As soon as Saito saw opportunities to turn things around, she took those opportunities. However, having come so far in this tournament, Miss A didn’t want anything less than to win this tournament, and this was obvious in the way she wrestled. Miss A was faring quite well, as she dominated Saito for quite a bit. After mostly focusing on wear down holds, Miss A took a bit more risk. This started backfiring on her, as Saito anticipated Miss A coming off the ropes, and Saito relentlessly started kicking away at Miss A. Not long after this, Miss A still found ways to get back in control, showing her power and determination. Miss A showed a bit of desperation as well, as she started attacking Saito with a chair on the floor, which was a rather odd and uncharacteristic moment that felt somewhat random. Of course, one could say that Miss A simply doing what she felt could help her get closer to her goal of winning this tournament. Saito once again found herself stuck in holds, including the sasorigatame and the figure-four leglock. Finally, Saito was able to fight back a bit more, as she even came close to pinning Miss A via a bridging German suplex. Miss A surprised Saito with a running lariat, the move that eliminated Itsuki Yamazaki from the tournament, but Saito was able to kick out on time. As the match approached the finish, they started going for bigger moves. Miss A hit a flying headbutt that almost got her the win. Saito hit an enzuigiri to the back of Miss A’s head and then almost pinned Miss A with a bridging tiger suplex. Saito went for a spinning kick, but Miss A caught her leg. However, Saito was able to grab hold of Miss and take her down. Miss A once again hit a running lariat, and Saito was able to kick out again. Somehow Miss A thought it was a good idea to go for yet another lariat, and Saito was able to catch her with a flying headscissors and take her down for the pinfall win. While this was a very good match, it didn’t have the amount of striking you’d expect from these two, and there was a lot of focus on wear down holds, which kind of wore down the match a bit as well. They did quite a good job of putting over the struggle though, and the final minutes were quite exciting. ***½

ML: Many of the previous matches in the tournament had been flashier, more AJW paced affairs even as they dabbled into UWF & brawling. The final was more of a slow boiler with All Japan ferocity to the strikes, built up in a more realistic manner with a advantages being hard to come by & fatigue setting in down the stretch. For the most part, it was similar to the A vs. Yamazaki match, with a much more standard Harley underdog storyline replacing the outside the box craftiness of Yamazaki, which was some of the most interesting stuff in that match. Again, they did a really nice job of building the match up, even if in a more predictable manner. Still, there were a lot of misses & reversals early on leading to brief runs. It took a series of brutal elbows for A to gain the advantage, and similarly, Harley had to unload on A with a series of nasty kicks to finally take the tide. The format was sort of that smaller underdog Harley would get behind, but then have enough moments of her own to nearly get back to even. This changed midway through the contest when A injured Harley with her leg submissions, compromising Harley's comebacks as speed & agility were her advantages, and her kicks and suplexes require a solid foundation. AGain, this was very similar to A vs. Yamazaki, except with Yamazaki working the leg first it was much more a motif of the match as opposed to a less than stellar bridge to a finishing stretch where A waisn't going to win with a submission & didnn't have time to go back to the leg in another fashion. Both were slower & less explosive at this point, selling the toll of the match, but really the point of the scorpion & figure 4 was to tell the story of Harley being compromised, so she had to try to give up on her delusion of overwhelming A & settle for a cheeky flash pin. The finish wasn't nearly as bad as A's win over Eagle or Eagle's win over Kandori, but nonetheless felt really forced. This was probably the most interesting match of the tournament stylistically, though not as deep or thoughtful as A vs. Yamazaki, and I'd rate it slightly below Harley vs. Devil as well because that was a better worked version of the same underdog Harley finds a way story that didn't fill in the gaps enough to fully come together. While they did a lot of things really well in a vacuum, the match felt more like an outline where Harley went from being a competitive underdog to one who wins the only way she can rather than a fully fleshed out whole that had enough focus to make you buy the finish. Harley was the star of the tournament, as the other top eschelon JWP worker, Yamazaki, went out 1st round. That was by far the match of the tournament, as Yamazaki carried A to possibly her best match to date, while this was more A dictating & Harley raising the level by naturally being such a skilled performer. The tournament was damn good from a wrestling standpoint, but the finishes were so consistently bad that the booking rose to the sort of heavyhandedness that Gedo was surely proud of. I'm not sure the value of the younger stars Harley, A, & Eagle was really raised the way they should have been from a tournament where they got wins over established stars Devil, Kandori, & Yamazaki, but at least JWP was able to keep a number of talented wrestlers at the top of the card. ***1/2

8/4/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Dynamite Kansai & The Scorpion vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito 15:46.
PA: The stupid Miss A name is finally gone for good, and now she's Dynamite Kansai. This was the beginning of the Kansai vs. Harley feud that would go on for the next few months. They had been opponents on 7/24 in a 6 woman tag, and that seemed to be the start of the ill will, not that any encouragement was needed, just putting them across the ring from each other was enough to get the sparks flying. Kandori had just been out brawling with the freak show act, Pink Cadillac, before the match, so she was already wound up. The start of this is so frantic, intense, uncooperative, and stiff, and that was when the match was at its best. They couldn't maintain that level all the way through, as they took things down in the middle, before having a really good final portion. All Harley and Kansai wanted to do was get at each other. Kansai was laying into Harley and tagged Scorpion, but Harley had no interest in her and tossed her away like she was garbage so she could keep fighting Kansai. Scorpion was JWP's top junior, but far outranked with this opposition. Scorpion was essentially there to hold things over and be a punching bag for Kandori, but she got her spots in here and there, and at least showed she was worth Kandori's time. In her first encounter with Kandori, she was chopped down and stomped, but after Kansai had done some damage, she was able to put together some offense on her in their next encounter. Kandori actually played face in peril for a few minutes until she was able to catch Kansai's arm and fight back. Kansai tossed her to the mat to break the attempted submission, and Kandori returned the favor, denying her snapmare and slamming her hard on the mat. They brawled on the outside after Scorpion dropkicked Kandori and did a plancha from Kansai's back. Kandori ended up doing a number on Scorpion, while Kansai did a number on Harley, but Harley was legal, so she was stuck in the ring after they returned. The bulk of the next few minutes saw Harley getting worked over until Kansai went up for her diving headbutt, Kandori held her, allowing Harley to superplex her down. When Kandori came in and went to the top rope, Scorpion pasted her a few times, allowing Kansai to backdrop suplex her down, and give Kandori any required motivation to kill her when she got the chance. Kandori and Scorpion were in soon after, and Kandori immediately hit a Tiger Driver, but Kansai broke up the pin. Harley and Kansai brawled on the outside while Kandori put a choke sleeper on Scorpion to quickly finish the match. Kansai wasn't too concerned with the result, she just wanted to keep fighting with Harley. Harley vs. Kansai was where the heat was, and their battles were great. Kansai vs. Kandori was the same sort of quality when it happened (and this was actually the last time they'd fight each other on tape until 1997). Scorpion wasn't bad at all, her work was good and her spots weren't really out of place, but she couldn't maintain the intensity that the match had when Kansai was in the ring. I suppose you couldn't really expect her to, but I think Rumi Kazama would have been a better fit for the tone of the match, as well as the style. ****

DC: About five years into her career, Miss A finally became Dynamite Kansai. It’s usually only die-hard joshi puroresu fans who have heard about The Scorpion, a relatively unknown wrestler who was part of the original JWP but retired before the creation of JWP Project (and thus, missed the interpromotional era). The Scorpion always seemed to try to do something flashy and memorable. In spite of that, she was probably the least impressive overall performer in this match due to her execution not always being the best. Harley Saito and Dynamite Kansai were the most outstanding performers in this match, due to them putting over this match as an intense battle better than the others, especially whenever they were fighting against each other here. Shinobu Kandori was her usual no-nonsense self, but she lacked the urgency and speed shown by the others. Saito vs. Kansai was the best part of the match, as the two were quite relentless in their assault on each other. And, unlike their somewhat disappointing singles match on 2/11/91, they did some more of the striking that you’d hope and expect to see from them. What was the best thing about this match was that everyone really seemed to show at all times the intention to beat up their opponent in order to come closer to a chance of victory. This wasn’t just wrestlers doing stuff for the sake of it. After lots of fast-paced action, Kansai almost pinned Saito via a flying headbutt. Scorpion used Kansai’s back as a springboard, as she leaped to the floor and landed on top of Kandori. There was some brawling on the floor, and in this case, it didn’t feel random, as it felt that the emotions had overflowed out of control and caused some of this chaotic brawling on the floor. Once the match returned to the ring, they were able to get a grip on their emotions and focus on the task at hand. Everyone was trying to pin each other whenever the opportunity presented itself. Kansai hit several stiff kicks to Saito’s back, but Saito caught Kansai’s leg and temporarily stopped the assault. The action never really slowed down, and the final minutes were a satisfying conclusion to an energetic match. The actual finish came when Kandori had Scorpion stuck in a submission hold on the mat. This was an excellent match that was interesting all the way through. ****

ML: A great appetizer for the Kansai vs. Saito rivalry, building up to a UWA International Title match on 10/10/91, and to a lesser extent Kansai vs. Kandori. The booker doesn't have to do anything here but put Kansai & Saito in the ring together. They fight with so much urgency that one can't help but be excited by the prospects of seeing more of this. The early portion is great because it's so frantic, very hard hitting action paced like a real fight where you have to just keep going after it, no time to lose. The pairings are flawed though, as you have the #1 and #3 wrestlers on the same team, with the main rivalry between the #2 & #3 wrestlers, thus essentially leaving Scorpion as a jobber who can't be expected to hang with the others, especially the overpowering bully Kandori. Scorpion is quite a good worker, but the bane of her existence here is exemplified by getting nastily stomped in the face when she goes for a schoolboy on Kandori, after Kandori has been hammering down her with a big chop then pulling her right back up for another. Despite there being a difference of several weight classes, Scorpion fights earnestly enough that Kandori remains interested in beating her up, and even sells for her enough that they can have a match. Scorpion is definitely the change of pace here, the tiny athletic women amidst the striking oriented ass kickers. She isn't a weak link per se, as she provides good action with a dive and a moonsault, but someone who could stay more in tone might have produced better results. All the heat and intensity is on Kansai's pairings, and the Choshu or Tenryu heated rivalry type of action we get from them is more effective in elevating the match beyond the standard well worked tag. Kansai vs. Kandori is quite good as well, there's just a lot less of it, and Kandori is not the athlete that Saito is, so even her striking is less fluid and precise despite being the stronger of the two. Kandori is nonetheless quite good here though, and comes off well as the dangerous star, even though she's outshined by the better workers Kansai & Saito because they are basically staying in her heavy hitting realm. Kansai makes the save after Kandori hits a Tiger driver, but Saito takes Kansai out with a kneel kick, and they fight on the floor as Kandori follows up with a rear naked choke for the win. Kansai seems less interested that she lost than that she was denied more time to beat on Harley, and slaps her after the match for the pull apart. ****

JWP 8/8/91 Osaka: Dynamite Kansai & The Scorpion vs. Harley Saito & Itsuki Yamazaki 18:30
PA: These uncooperative, unpredictable and hard hitting Harley vs. Kansai tag matches are something else. JWP really hit their groove with these tags where they lay into each other every chance they get. Yamazaki was an amazing addition, who made for a much faster paced match than 8/4. Yamazaki is remembered as this high flyer in the '80s, which is far from all she could do, she was just the best at it. Here, she was the stand out of a great match that had nothing to do with flying, where she only did a couple high flying spots at the very end. It didn’t take long for her to make her presence felt, and she got this off to a great start. Kansai was staring a hole through Harley and couldn’t wait to start fighting with her, so Yamazaki jumped her, dragged her outside and threw her into the guard rail twice (no one takes a guard rail bump like Kansai) before feeding her to Harley to deliver some stiff kicks. Kansai was pretty much seething. She already wanted to kill Harley, but now she was looking for revenge on Yamazaki too. Yamazaki always got the best of her, and wasn’t afraid to break the rules to do it. When Yamazaki was looking to settle into some matwork on Scorpion, Kansai came in with a kick, quickly tagged in but Yamazaki was quick and scrambled to get some room, grabbed Kansai’s foot and raked the eyes. Yamazaki’s effectiveness in shutting down Kansai was on display, as it had been in their singles match earlier in the year, but here, she was always looking to set her up for Harley to come in with the advantage. Scorpion had Yamazaki in a leglock that wasn’t at all threatening, but Yamazaki still had to make the ropes, which put her within arms reach of Kansai, who took another opportunity to attempt some revenge by dragging her outside and throwing her into the guard rail. They brawled in the crowd, but Yamazaki turned the tide on her again, so Kansai still wasn’t totally satisfied. Kansai being overaggressive got her into trouble every time, but she’s Kansai, so she could survive. Yamazaki missed a reverse body attack on Scorpion, both of them tagged out and Kansai sprinted to Harley with complete tunnel vision, seemingly not realizing Yamazaki was still in the ring, so Yamazaki grabbed her and held for Harley to tee off with vicious kicks. Kansai was once again being dominated, but she was again able to wear the damage and fire back. There was a great moment late in the match when Kansai thought she had Yamazaki right where she wanted her, countering her headlock into a backdrop suplex, and unloading kicks to the chest. Yamazaki isn’t a renown shootkicker, but she'll find an answer one way or another. She can boot you really hard and scrap when she needs to, and that's what she did here. She caught Kansai in the mouth and started going for her head, completely overwhelming her in the process. Harley and Yamazaki began to briefly work over Kansai’s arm, but couldn’t get far, as Kansai returned the favor and kicked Yamazaki in the mouth to put a stop to that. We got back to Harley and Kansai one more time with another brief but intense exchange, trading elbows, which Kansai finished with a backdrop suplex. Kansai missed her diving headbutt and Yamazaki quickly missile dropkicked her, sending her out the floor. On her way out Scorpion switched in, so Yamazaki set her up on the turnbuckle for Harley, then completely took Kansai out of the match with a tope while Harley finished Scorpion with a Tiger suplex. Scorpion didn't have much of a role in the match outside of holding things over for Kansai again, but she fit in much better with the higher pace and two opponents who she could work her style with. She doesn’t really engage in the stiff and aggressive style the opposition was doing with Kansai, but the contrast worked here. Her lucha spots looked good, and they never seemed out of place. The Harley vs. Kansai rivalry continued to build, and both had another excellent showing, but as good as they were, Yamazaki was on another level and really carried this match to be one of the best original JWP matches. ****1/2

DC: Itsuki Yamazaki threw Dynamite Kansai in the guardrail so hard that the guardrail fell apart, leaving a trail of destruction. The match continued at this frantic and urgent pace. Harley Saito was particularly impressive, because she was constantly doing something that seemed to make sense if you were trying to portray this being an actual contest, not just offensively, but also when she was on the receiving-end of action. Saito didn’t just bump and sell wildly for everything like a lot of wrestlers generally tend to do. Instead, Saito sold in a manner that felt appropriate. If a move didn’t seem to have much impact, there was more of an uncooperative feel to Saito’s selling/reaction. Sometimes this would mean simply countering a move, and sometimes this meant underselling a move or attempted move by the opponent. In this match, there was no silliness, and there was no stalling. There was a brief portion that saw them go to the floor and brawl for a bit. It felt a bit random, but they were able to put forth the idea that this happened because of the adrenaline rush they were feeling in the heat of the contest. Even the high flying moves in the match were done in a way to give the impression they were done in a way to do further damage to the opponent, not to show off. Yamazaki gave a really smooth performance in this match that confirmed she was one of the top women’s wrestlers at the time. Kansai was the most powerful and the most stiff performer in this match, and she wisely relied on those strengths. She also did a really good job of putting over her war with Saito through lots of intensity. The Scorpion tried to go for flashier moves more often than the other participants, but it didn’t seem to work out for her that well. In the end, Saito scored the pinfall over Scorpion via a beautifully-executed dragon suplex. This was a truly excellent match that was intriguing from start to finish. ****¼ 

ML: The insertion of Yamazaki changed the entire tenor of the match. Rather than focusing on credible hard hitting, though that's still very much a thing between Kansai & Saito, this was a much faster paced, workrate oriented match. Yamazaki was much more diverse than the later day Jaguar Yokota clones, and while it obviously helped a lot that this was one of the fastest paced JWP matches of the era, and that three of these women are excellent workers and all four were very motivated to go hard, this was as much a war as a sprint, and worked so well because it's a smart and well timed rivalry match. Yamazaki, who again is a bigger star than her partner Saito, had heat with Kansai, having been defeated by her in the first round of UWA International Title Tournament on 1/6/91 in an excellent match that was the highlight of the tournament by far, but she was still more about facilitating things for her partner to set up the rematch of that tournament's final than settling her own score. Yamazaki did a great job at thwarting Kansai to set up Saito, so Kansai kept not being able to meet Saito on equal footing. Yamazaki's brilliance was apparent right away, as Kansai was laser focused on Saito, so when Kansai pointed at Saito and started to get into it with her before the bell, Yamazaki charged at Kansai and softened her up with two hard rams into the security railing, before throwing her back into the ring for Saito to now have her way with. Later, Scorpion had Yamazaki in a sorry Achilles' tendon hold, and Kansai kicked Yamazaki's hand off the ropes, then dragged her to the floor and took her revenge, sending her into the guard rail. When Yamazaki and Scorpion tagged out at the same time, Kansai was so eager to get at Harley that she kicked Harley before Harley could even get into the ring, but Yamazaki then held her from behind so Harley could get several free kicks in, enough to once again dominate their exchange. Yamazaki wasn't pidgeonholed into being a schoolgirl pleasing babyface in JWP, so her old competitive heelish tendencies would come out from time to time, whether that meant going to the eyes or kicking Kansai in the mush. The match built up to Saito and Kansai finally squaring off with neither compromised, and it was a brief but electric elbow exchange that was more energetic than any Kawada and Misawa ever had, finished by Kansai's big backdrop. Yamazaki sent Kansai to the floor with a missile kick, then set Scorpion up on the middle rope so Saito could finish her off before taking Kansai out with a tope. Though again the obious jobber, Scorpion faired much better in this match, as the higher pace suited her much better than the stiffness of the 8/4/91 match, and both opponents were more than capable and willing to do her usual junior style match with her. Saito & Kansai were excellent, but despite doing everything she could to make Saito steal the show, Yamazaki was so great that she still really outshined the others even though they were at the very top of their game. ****1/2

11/2/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, UWA International Title: Harley Saito vs. Dynamite Kansai 14:51
PA: After months of bad blood and violent tag team matches, we finally got around to the big singles match. This was a smartly worked match with good pacing, build and all the stiff striking and quality matwork we expect from these two, but since they were working a singles match, they couldn’t have the same frantic pace and bursts of their more electric tag team exchanges. I thought they improved upon their 2/11/91 match in all aspects. They had a very good back and forth battle to start, with each scoring some big blows. Harley couldn’t match Kansai’s strength, but she was faster and craftier. Immediately, she jumped Kansai from behind and looked to stay on her, but as soon as she gave Kansai any room or took the pedal off the gas, Kansai was able to fight back. They remained mostly even through the mat phase as well. Harley was effectively answering Kansai, but was still prone to making some mistakes. Early in the match, she tried for a test of strength, which she had no chance of winning, and caught a knee in the face for it. When they were on the mat, she seemed to have Kansai in some trouble going for her leg, but switched to the left arm, which allowed Kansai to just take her down. These errors didn’t cost her too badly, and she was able to come back from them, but going to the top rope proved to be flying too close to the sun, and was a major turning point in the match. Kansai knocked her to the floor and mauled her on the outside, then looked to put her away with big moves in the ring. Harley tried to come back, but she was getting completely overwhelmed. Kansai hit a lariat, which got a near fall and Harley rolled outside to take a breather. Kansai didn’t want to let her have any respite, and went for a tope, but crashed and burned. Harley immediately followed up dumping her with a nasty backdrop on the floor, which completely finished off Kansai. She was too badly hurt to do anything, and wouldn't have even made it back in the ring if Harley didn't toss her back in. A few kicks and a Tiger Suplex, and Harley wins again. I really liked the finish this time, yes, it required some luck, but instead of the fluke pin we saw in their first title match, this was Harley pouncing on a mistake, and I thought both looked strong coming out of it. It was pretty clear the door was left wide open for another match at some point, and you would think Kansai would’ve taken the belt on her third try, but JWP wouldn’t be around long enough for us to get it, and after it closed down these two would go their separate ways. ***3/4

ML: The unbridled hatred and aggression displayed by a Kansai and Saito during this program had been exemplary. Unfortunately, by nature, aggression is something that works in short bursts. It's much more difficult to maintain that sort of attitude throughout the course of a singles match than during two minute segments in a tag. The opening was fantastic with Kansai refusing to shake hands and turning her back on Harley, so Harley took her out with a kneel kick. When they were fighting this way, the way they did in the leadup tags, it was once again exceptional, but original JWP was, by nature, a more "patient" style of joshi, and even in this payoff match, for some reason they didn't try to maintain the vigor of the tags. I mean, invariably they were set up for somewhat of a disappointment because they were going to have to fill the time with submissions and whatnot, but technically it was quite good, Kansai was brutal and the submissions were well worked. This just needed to be more of a heated sprint. I wanted Kansai to just keep trying to run through Harley, and Harley would either find a clever counter using her speed and guile, or get plowed over. There was certainly some of this, for instance Kansai trying to shoulderblock Saito off the apron, but Saito instead getting a near fall sunset flipping back into the ring. I'm sounding like I'm down on this match, but it's really quite good. It's just not the culmination of a blood feud I wanted to see, it's one of those matches you appreciate more the second time you watch it once you get over the disappointment of the first viewing, and try to meet it on its own terms rather than the ones they've been teasing you with for literally 10 months. This was a title match, and if one of the big negatives was that they put too much emphasis on actually winning rather than simply destroying their rival, that's not a bad place to be. The story they told effectively was that the match was even enough but in Kansai's hands, and it was the mistakes both were making that were the difference. Kansai using the chair and guard rail on the outside was exactly the direction this program had logically gone in, but overall, this match just needed to be faster and more hellbent. It was certainly a high quality wrestling match, but it lacked the hatred and juice of even the least of their tags. I just didn't have that feeling of them wanting to kill each other that had elevated their rivalry so far above the standard. The go for broke nature that was missing here would have made the finish set up by Kansai's tope backfiring work much better too. This was a more satisfying, and certainly better, meeting than their January encounter, with Saito still the underdog despite being champ, but feeling a lot less so, even to the point of not taking the countout or trying to take the easy win by just pinning Kansai when she dragged her back in. Saito was clearly the better worker of the two at this point in time, but Kansai upped her game a lot more here and clearly outperformed her here, in good part because Kansai's striking was so overwhelmingly brutal, while for some reason Saito's seemed much weaker and more inconsistent than usual. Harley once again escaping with the victory was a surprise, and I really want to see the third match this was surely leading to, but instead we started going down the path of everyone dividing themselves into undermanned little camps because they couldn't find a way to get along for the better of the promotion. ***3/4

STARDOM 3/21/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Goddesses of Stardom Title Match: Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani vs. Kairi Hojo & Meiko Satomura 24:21
PA: 2010's Meiko Satomura was easily her best form. The wrecking ball asskicking boss. It's hard to believe this is the same hyperactive underdog we saw in GAEA all those years ago. It's almost like watching her mentor, Chigusa Nagayo, in 1984 and then in 1987, though a much more exaggerated transformation. Today, Satomura was teaming with Kairi Hojo, former rivals thrown together and given one day to practice in order to give Thunder Rock a meaningful challenge. Satomura wasn't short of motivation since Io had defeated her in December for Stardom's red belt, but the lack of familiarity between the makeshift team would be a major point of the story. Satomura's presence was felt from the get go with intense exchanges with both of her opponents, which would be a sign of things to come. Hojo came in to play face in peril, which was the ideal role for her. Thunder Rock's control segment showed how cohesive they were as a team, dominating Hojo, their attacks were always on point. Once Hojo was able to break free and get a tag, Satomura was dealing with Io outside and not in position to take it. Hojo did make the tag soon enough, which gave us the meaningless crowd brawl portion so someone can dive off the fan entrance; here it was Hojo & Satomura delivering forearm strikes. Once they returned to the ring, things picked up in a big way and we were treated to the best exchange in the match, which saw Satomura and Io going after each other in a stiff and intense exchange. Io was able to use her speed to gain the upperhand and win the exchange. There was a nice touch too with Hojo trying to thwart Io from the apron but being unsuccessful. Iwatani had a very good exchange to follow up, Satomura got the best of her but she needed a rest and had to tag Hojo in. As the match built to its climax, the difference in teamwork further became apparent. Thunder Rock were executing all of their big moves, while their opponents weren't, and it got worse for them when Satomura accidently nailed Hojo with two kicks. Satomura was eventually able to be of some help and almost got Hojo the victory but ultimately Satomura was taken out by a spike tombstone and Hojo was left all alone to get beaten. It was a smartly worked match that showcased the best of everyone involved with all the hard hitting and well executed spots you'd expect. The action, psychology and storytelling were great. Satomura stood out most because the match was on such a different level when she was in. Hojo was fine in her role as the sympathetic underdog. She is quite good in that regard, but she doesn't bring anything to the table otherwise. Her selling isn't that interesting, and her weak chops and contrived moveset just don't cut it compared to the others. Thunder Rock really were a great team, and complimented each other so well. Io was on fire at this point in time and gave one of her best performances, and Mayu was really good in the supporting role. ****1/2

ML: Watch Review. 21 years into their career, most wrestlers should simply be retired, rather than hanging on like crippled zombies. Satomura, on the other hand, had the best match of her career tonight, and while it certainly helps that both of her opponents are amazing, this was very much a brutal Satomura striking war. Satomura was treated as the big conquering hero, a total wrecking ball. All her segments were electric. This was really unlike her typical match in the sense that didn't feel patterned and formulaic, but rather she was so urgent the entire time, really precise with her execution and flowing in a the more organic manner Shirai was known for. She really kept things on point, ensuring the battles were fast, full energy and impact skirmishes. This allowed Hojo to be the underdog, which is a role she is much more suited for given her offense not only lacks spontaneity but is just pretty lame in general, and she isn't exactly dynamic or creative in any way. As with the "better" robots, what she can do is allow the opponents to do the work for her, and adapt to the match enough that she stays within the parameters the people who know what they are doing have set forth. Hojo's slaps sound better than they look, but this was the most effective she has ever been. She may not have added to the match, as she was largely just bent and beat on, but for once I can't really say she detracted from it. Her segments were all good, just not as shot out of a cannon riveting as Satomura's. Even though Satomura was simply an outsider randomly thrown into a title match between pals, this felt like an interpromotional war from the glory days. It was super intense and energetic right from the outset. For the most part, this match was in the style Satomura excels in, but Thunder Rock are underrated in this style largely because they rarely do it, as shown by the tremendous quality of their first singles title match. Of course, they were able to work other aspects into the match to keep things entertaining, and have a bit of diversity, but while one could say that the intensity wavered from time to time in the middle because they obviously left the hard-hitting now and then to do some of flashier stuff that separates Thunder Rock, it never felt like they were waiting or screwing around. Thunder Rock especially did quite a bit of running and jumping, but it was all done in an opportunistic fashion, at lightning speed and with great urgency, so it didn't feel like the usual contrived lucha exhibition. I mean, when they ran, they sprinted, and when they jumped, they catapulted themselves at the opponent. Thunder Rock, of course, provided amazing work, but this was truly a textbook example of how phony high flying can reasonably be incorporated into an otherwise serious war. Thunder Rock were even super stiff, but also very precise in everything they did, especially Shirai, whose execution could always be counted on to be so tight and crisp during this period. Mayu pushed Shirai out of the way to force a start between her and Satomura, and Satomura went at her full boar from the get go. Iwatani had some counters of her own though, and proved that she could hit Satomura back hard enough to command her respect. Similarly, Hojo did enough to hang in the exchanges, but where Satomura was winning them, Hojo was losing them. Thunder Rock are obviously the much more cohesive unit, as Satomura's previous interactions with Hojo were carrying her to shocking respectable matches that went a long way toward creating her unwarranted stardom in STARDOM. It felt like it took both of Thunder Rock to gain an advantage on Satomura, while Satomura also opened up a lot of Hojo's offense with her saves, setups, and interference. Hojo was mostly just getting bullied, and not offering Satomura much assistance, even in storyline I mean, but Satomura didn't really need help here, and was really able to steps things up in protecting Hojo in the later stages, though even Satomura was hampered by the team's lack of coherence. Of course, the battle everyone really wanted to see was Satomura vs. Shirai, and with Shirai having defeated Satomura to win the World Of Stardom Championship for the 2nd time on 12/23/15, Satomura was very much out for revenge. Shirai definitely gave back to Satomura here, but in the end, she left with two belts after pinning Hojo following her moonsault. I liked this more than the two great Shirai vs. Iwatani singles matches from 2016, it was simply more frantic and intense, feeling like the best interpromotional joshi matches of 1993. Unfortunately, none of these women work this style of electric battle, with this amount of urgency or intensity, really ever. That's what made this STARDOM's best match of 2016, and probably all-time, but also a reason 2017 and onwards STARDOM keeps getting less interesting (though obviously a minor reason when compared to the general style ultimately becoming untrained idols trying to do BS Road epics). The most similar STARDOM match would be the great 9/23/15 Thunder Rock vs. Jumanji Sisters match, which was also an electric interpromotional war. ****3/4

STARDOM 3/9/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Io Shirai & Meiko Satomura vs. Mayu Iwatani & Chihiro Hashimoto 19:17
PA: This was a celebration match for Io Shirai's 10th anniversary, and that was the tone that was set from the get go. Io and Hashimoto opened things up, doing the old collision spots along with Io doing a brief exhibition of lucha. It was fine I guess, but hardly the opening salvo you might have expected. On the other hand, Satomura and Iwatani were excellent when they tagged in, and brought the intensity up. This was basically how the match went. When Iwatani and Satomura were going at it, it was a brutal, intense war. When Io and Hashimoto were in, it wasn't that. Io was in spotbot mode and happy to pander to the crowd as much as she pleased, while Hashimoto wasn't able to entice her into doing anything more interesting. Iwatani and Hashimoto's control segment in the first half wasn't good, taking a somewhat light-hearted tone, highlighted by Iwatani grabbing Io's hair and running around in circles with it. Thankfully Io made her comeback soon after, and we got back to the great match Satomura and Iwatani were having with the two bringing all the stiffness and intensity back to the match. They went hard at each other and Iwatani was more competitive with Satomura than she ever had been. This was the one really great exchange in the match, and it remained really good for the second half, but it's hard to ignore the lack of any psychology or consistency in tone. There was good stuff from Io and Hashimoto. Io does her spots well, and she was fine working with Iwatani. Hashimoto was capable of producing a few highlights, but I was expecting more. It was a far cry from the all out war Iwatani and Satomura were having, and it makes me a little sad that they never had a big singles match between them now that Iwatani was on a level where she was allowed to competitive with Satomura instead of getting dismantled and beaten in 11 minutes like she was in their 11/15/2015 match. ***1/2

DC: SGPW's Meiko Satomura didn't appear in STARDOM often, but when she did, it was usually for a match that would end up being memorable. This was the main event of a show that celebrated Io Shirai's 10th anniversary as a pro wrestler. It was interesting to see 2016 Rookie of the Year Chihiro Hashimoto being thrown into the mix here, as this was basically the battle of the top stars of STARDOM & SGPW vs. two wrestlers who had the ability to potentially become the top star of their respective leagues. It was refreshing to see SGPW workers in a STARDOM ring again, as they were able to bring more crispness and intensity than what most of the regular STARDOM matches had been giving that year so far. Since this show was mostly about her, it was not surprising that Shirai was arguably the key performer of the match. Of course, it helped that she teamed with her old rival (Satomura), faced her current rival (Iwatani) and a promising young worker (Hashimoto). Shirai displayed her tremendous athleticism on many occasions during this contest. Iwatani showed that she was eager to show the top dogs that she was ready to do whatever it takes to be a joshi icon in her own right in the near future, and Iwatani certainly gave a strong performance here, always adding more quality to the match through everything she did. Her performance in this match was arguably more interesting than Shirai's, because Iwatani focused more on detail, while Shirai focused more on being flashy whenever she wasn't selling. In fact, Iwatani was the only one who really seemed to work in a way that tried to give the impression this was a big match. Satomura was being Satomura, which meant she did some cool stuff and hit some stiff kicks. She definitely gave a good performance, but she didn't necessarily stand out. However, her work with Iwatani were some of the best moments of the match, even though it was mostly due to Iwatani's all-round excellence. Hashimoto played her role well. She showed she was an up-and-coming star and managed to come across as humble despite the fact she was clearly physically very powerful. At one point, Hashimoto hit a particularly impressive-looking released German suplex on Shirai. In the end, Shirai won this match via pinfall over Iwatani after nailing a beautiful moonsault. Hashimoto did feel like the odd one out, since the other three were such established names in joshi puroresu. Hashimoto not being able to step up and be a real threat in this match is one of the reasons why the match ended up not quite as excellent as it initially seemed it could have been. It was a very good match, but it was just missing that little bit of extra something for it to be considered excellent. ***¾

ML: A year ago, Thunder Rock had one of the joshi matches of the century with the random tag team of Satomura and Kairi Hojo, the best match of Satomura & Hojo's careers because everyone took every moment seriously, and worked at full speed and intensity to have an urgent and brutal match that wound up being much more amazing than it had the right to be. This match actually sounded better on paper because Hashimoto is much more interesting and capable than Hohum, and you had actual rivalries here, with the young stars trying to take over for the established veterans rather than simply just Satomura looking for some revenge on Shirai for recapturing the title for STARDOM. Also, the pairings were better with Shirai & Satomura forming a dream team of sorts because now Shirai and Iwatani got to wrestle one another, and you had the generational rivalry. Unfortunately, this match was nowhere near the all-out Match of the Year effort of the 3/21/16 contest, in part because they didn't bother telling any sort of compelling story, but mostly because it was largely devoid of the intensity and ferocity that made last year's bout so electric and compelling. Iwatani was still at that level. Iwatani really got how the match still needed to be worked, taking it seriously as a rivalry match where something was actually at stake. She was still pushing herself in 2017, trying to grow, and was the only one who possibly gave a better performance this year. Satomura was fantastic in the brutal 3/21/16 match, a career performance, and once again gave one of her more interesting performances. Satomura's style, of course, naturally tends towards the sort of credibility a rivally match needs, but this time it was largely her not working as much as the others that allowed her to just stick to the hard hitting stuff she does well, and not have to fill in the showy and repetitive stuff around it, rather than a conscious effort to give the best sort of Yumiko Hotta badass performance. This was a less is more performance though, which was fine in the sense that, in theory, without Hojo she wasn't required to be the entire team. The match could have been as good or better despite Satomura not being as much of the big boss, but this time they didn't really bother to tell a story at all, or put the time into developing the roles of the workers. There was a different dynamic because whereas underdog Hojo initiated next to nothing and required Satomura to bail her out, Shirai can obviously handle herself as well as anyone, and for some reason Hashimoto was initiating constantly and sold for a ton, which was a tremendous liability since, as with Hojo, in these surroundings she's just miles out of her depth talent and skill wise. Satomura vs. Iwatani was not only the best pairing, but the only one that didn't really disappoint. Their segments were again brutal and intense exchanges, and it was more impressive that their work stood out so much this time given the heat was on Iwatani vs. Shirai, and those two were the ones who have had great matches together. Shirai was rather disappointing here. She did not seem dialed in at all against Hashimoto, who she mostly just reacted to without much interest. This match was meant to celebrate her 10th anniversary, so people were naturally going to root for her more than usual. She was supposed to be the heel here though, but only Mayu was able to put forth the notion that she cared a lot more about hurting the opposition, and thus displayed the aggression Shirai should have brought. Hashimoto didn't bring much to the match, and Shirai wasn't able to elevate Hashimoto's level because whereas Shirai was completely in charge when Hojo was in the ring, by default, she now allowed Hashimoto to take it to her the whole time, once in a while making a nice counter. Shirai seemed bored working with Hashimoto, who was just a basic second-year powerhouse at this point. Given Hashimoto had been Sendai Girls champ for a year, one would expect her to actually have something to offer at this level, but that was a lot of smoke and mirrors put forth by DASH Chisako, Aja Kong, and Satomura, and unfortunately Shirai didn't even attempt to maintain the illusion. This left us with a very green worker carrying much of the match, and while, Hashimoto can throw her body around, even Nanae can do that (although points to Hashimoto for not injuring the opponent in the process). I like Hashimoto a lot more, especially as time goes on and she gains the experience to improve and round out her game, but as much as it kills me to say it, Hojo was way more useful in this spot last year because Io was focused and working hard taking it to her, rather than breezing along with what little Hashimoto had to throw at her, and Hojo can be programmed to simply sell a ton and just hit hard when she's given the opportunity to do something. Tonight's match began on the wrong foot with Shirai against Hashimoto, who didn't set an intense or heated tone the way Satomura did last year. Iwatani and Satomura would try to correct this, but the match just wasn't consistent because they were short a worker who could hang with or engage Shirai. The first 10 minutes of this match were fine, if somewhat underachieving, then the match tried to take off when Satomura made the hot tag and had a big exchange with Iwatani. All the Satomura vs. Iwatani stuff was stiff and intense, but then we'd be right back to the inelegance of Hashimoto vs. the cutesiness of Shirai. There was some good stuff from them, but it was uneven, and the pairing certainly didn't bring out the best in Shirai despite Hashimoto definitely trying hard and being enthusiastic. On 3/21/16, they did everything they could to utilize the talent to the fullest, tonight they just got by on talent, and most of that talent wasn't even firing on all cylinders. Granted, that talent is still considerable, given all these women will make some hall of fames or other when they hang it up, but it takes everyone being on their A game to produce a classic such as we saw last March. Outside of Mayu vs. Meiko, this was certainly more of a fun match than an all-out war. ***1/2

STARDOM 2/4/17 Kyoto KBS Hall, Io Shirai vs. Konami 9:55
DC: In preparation for an upcoming match against Shayna Baszler, Io Shirai battled Konami at the beautiful KBS Hall in Kyoto. This meant that Shirai was facing someone who had a somewhat similar style as Baszler, a style more focused on submission wrestling. Shirai's preferred style is quite different, as she was more of an explosive risk taker focusing on moves that put her tremendous athleticism on display. Early in the match, Konami tried to get Shirai trapped on the mat, but Shirai managed to escape quickly, as she wisely didn't want to risk staying too long in one of Konami's holds. Despite Shirai being the top star in STARDOM (and all of women's wrestling) at the time, Shirai took Konami very seriously. This was definitely a nice compliment for the talented Konami, who had only been in STARDOM for a short while. Konami wasn't only dangerous on the mat, which Shirai soon realized when she was on the receiving-end of a well-placed high kick to the face by Konami. Shirai sold this big time, further emphasizing that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park for Shirai. Once Shirai was able to avoid some of Konami's attempted offense, Shirai showed lots of urgency in trying to stay on top of Konami. Shirai was soon back in trouble again because of Konami's ability to counter from all kinds of angles with submission holds. Shirai's right leg had become a target for Konami's offense, which was sold well by Shirai. The match ended up going back and forth. Shirai tried to go for high-impact moves, and Konami focused on submission holds. In the end, Shirai went for la magistral and then transitioned into a bridging rollup pinning combination for the win. Shirai's experience and cunningness had given her the win here, but it wasn't an easy win. Despite this match lasting only slightly less than ten minutes, it served its purpose. This was a really fun match to watch, and while it wasn't very spectacular for a match featuring Shirai, it was very enjoyable and logical. It was actually exactly because of this not being the typical Shirai match that this was a memorable match. Plus, the match helped establish Konami as someone who could potentially achieve big things in STARDOM one day. ***½

ML: The more shoot oriented opponents - Konami, Baszler & Satomura (unfortunately only in tag, and Mayu was really the one that was into doing the thing with her) - are bringing out a better, more dialed in version of Shirai this year. When left to her devices, Shirai is just kind of on autopilot, executing exceptionally and running through the flashy spots in between taking a bunch of the opponents offense, mostly in more of an exhibition manner, not really developing the match in an interesting manner or fighting with any urgency or intensity. Granted, she is still an incredibly reliable performer, who even managed to have something of a passable 26 minute match with one of the most athletically inept in shape performers to ever take part in combat sports in Yoko Bito after the endless disaster that was Bito vs. Iroha, but it feels like the uphill battle of trying to carry so many mediocre opponents in featured singles matches is breaking Shirai down both physically and mentally in 2017. Konami isn't an opponent that needs help, other than someone who is capable of doing something more realistic. Had Kana not abandoned her young protege when she joined the circus, Konami might have become one of the biggest stars in Japan, but without any real consolidation of former Mariko Yoshida trainees coalescing in 2017, she's kind of just a ronin floating around aimlessly. In any case, this Konami match was the first of the bunch against shooters, and arguably the best minute for minute. Certainly, it was much more riveting than what we are seeing from Io otherwise, particularly in the early portions, because there was more effort put into actually getting something to work. They were moving more realistically, and being cautious and apprehensive about what they were trying to do and how they were doing it in a good way that made it seem like there are actual stakes. The brevity of the contest still forced them to move to the more flashy Io stuff quicker than they should have, but Konami really kept Io on her toes, and that brought out the much better version of Io. It was mostly Konami's offense early on that was kicks and knees, but the key spot where Io broke cleanly on the ropes only to have Konami reverse her and land a cheap high kick really set the stage for Io to be more aggressive and bring some of the beatdown in between flying around. For the most part, Io was supplying the high quality work, but Konami was keeping it intense and somewhat credible, hanging in there by countering the fancy stuff with her shoot oriented offense. The element of surprise was key here, whether from the counters or the way they evolved the offense, for instance Konami using a schoolboy just to get Io down so she could transition right into an Achilles' tendon hold. Konami had a nice kneebar counter for the Tiger driver. Later, Konami kicked Io when she was on the top rope preparing for the moonsault, then pulled her into a rear naked choke. Io did a good job of making Konami seem to be a credible challenger with dangerous offense even though we knew there was zero chance Konami was winning. Shirai actually won this with a flash pin, which normally might seem cheesy, but worked in the context of this match, which was more about creating openings. This match would have benefitted from more time to develop, but at least they actually made good use of the time they had. Their 9/3/17 rematch in the 5Min Grand Prix failed to recapture the aura of this match by getting Konami over as a dangerous shooter. Shirai still sold a lot, as usual, but Konami just felt like any old opponent who just happened to be doing kicks and submissions. It was nonetheless one of the more energetic performances of the year by Shirai, but felt very rushed despite only being 43 seconds shorter and not particulary shoot oriented. It's well worth watching, and Konami's work there fits in much better with the junior style match Io is typically doing, but very much at the price of it never feeling like Konami was fighting in her usual credible manner. ***

STARDOM 2/23/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, World of Stardom Title Match: Io Shirai vs. Shayna Baszler 16:45
ML: Baszler was one of my favorites in early women's MMA, a fun and charismatic character who was the only fighter to carry or mimic playing the guitar that didn't just come off as a poser. Trained by Billy Robinson and Josh Barnett, she was a natural crossover to pro wrestling, as she already had incorporated many aspects into her MMA persona, in an interesting rather than jackass Colby Covington kind of manner. This was a much different match for Io, and that made it exciting, as she couldn't just do her usual high flying routine given she was facing a deadly shooter who was a couple weight classes above her. Shirai totally did Baszler's match, which was probably both necessary because Baszler is somewhat green, and certainly logical because Baszler's shooting background requires this to look different if it's to work properly. Shirai's greatness was displayed by finding all sorts of ways to adapt despite being so far out of her own comfort zone. Baszler was a lot of fun as the sadistic technical fighter who methodically picked Io apart, and the match had quite a bit of good arm work from Shayna, as well as a less than satisfying back storyline from Io, though that was as much due to Baszler's goofy overselling as Shirai's offensive choices. The early portion was really where the match was firing on all cylinders, especially some neat stuff with Baszler making Io pay for trying to use lucha libre against real fighting, countering the leapfrog with a big slam, and stopping Shirai's charge dead with a knee. Baszler's arm work was fairly credible, and certainly really nasty. The match began to fall apart when referee Daichi Murayama began interjecting himself, turning a serious encounter where they were getting over the major stakes into the sort of cornball shit we regularly get from clowns such as Red Shoes. First, Murayama was arguing with Baszler for hanging Shirai in the corner with a rear naked choke. Later, instead of stopping the match when Io went out from what now had to be a rear naked chinlock, he forced Baszler to release the hold and go for three count, which Io barely kicked out of, then of course he didn't just stop the match when she couldn't get back to her feet because no pro wrestling match can be complete without an unconscious fighter being allowed a minute to get ready to receive their next concussion. This ultimately would have been less lame if Murayama was a heel ref, and actively trying to stall for Io. Instead, it made less than no sense, especially with Baszler having just won the trios title with a choke. To make matters worse, you had the grand champion Shirai only being able to gain an advantage due to ref distraction in a match where she was looking to break her own record for title defenses. In any case, Shirai did some flying, and supposedly hurt Baszler's back whipping her into a crowd barrier, which would have come off much better if Baszler didn't clearly just leap over it, and then proceed to sell in a ridiculously over the top manner. Baszler came back with a gutwrench suplex off the second and then another one in the ring, but her selling of her back was so ridiculous that it was taking me way out of the moment. Baszler's offense was a great combination of technical precision and sadistic brutality though, and I was enjoying pretty much everything she was doing other than selling. I liked the focus on the arm and the back, but these spots were largely just leading to overdone selling, which was killing the flow of the match. Particularly, Baszler's offense felt a little clunky because she was killing so much time waiting for Io to recover rather than pressing her advantage and taking her out like a shooter is supposed to do. Shirai was able to finally hit her moonsalt because Baszler was arguing with the ref over a closed fist punch. Perhaps our biggest takeaway from this match is that pro wrestling is really great for promoting improper techniques! Baszler was rumored to have murmored, "If I'm going to participate in something this foolish, I might as well go to Stamford." Anyway, Baszler was able to get an armbar out of Shirai's pin attempt following the moonsault, but her back "failed her", and Io was able to counter back with a Texas cloverleaf variation to do in Baszler's back for good, allowing her to finish with the moonsault. This is one of those matches that's difficult to rate because, as is so often the case, so much excellent work by the wrestlers was done in by so many nonsensical interjections from the Vince Russo wannabe booker who is under the delusion that he's more important than the performers themselves. ***1/2

STARDOM 3/20/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, World of Stardom Title Match: Io Shirai vs. Kairi Hojo 22:38
DC: These two had previously good matches against each other on 3/29/15 and 1/17/16. Their familiarity with each other certainly played a big role in the quality of their match here, but they ended up exceeding expectations on this day. The transitions were smooth, and the overall execution looked very good. Of course, it would probably have been an even better match if Kairi Hojo wouldn't have her usual tendencies of being overdramatic. However, Hojo certainly can have good matches, especially against a top-notch performance like Io Shirai, who did a great job of carrying the match. Shirai wassuper into what she is doing. Everything she did in this match looked so good: the way she moved, the way she sold and the way she hit her offense. At one point, she hit a tremendous moonsault off the fan entrance in the crowd. Once the match went back into the ring, the match went back and forth. No matter whether she was on offense or defense, Shirai's timing was superb. There was a lot of action, and both workers worked hard. The crowd was on the edge of their seats and really into every move. There were several close near falls towards the end of the match, including Hojo kicking out after Shirai executed a beautiful moonsault. In the end, after hitting a tombstone piledriver, Shirai hit another moonsault. This particular moonsault didn't hit the target as well as usual, but the damage had been done anyway. This was a very good match, but it wasn't quite excellent. It would have possibly been excellent if there was more urgency shown throughout the match. ***½

ML: Of anyone left in STARDOM, Hojo was the one who could be said to have Shirai's number, as she at least beat her in the World Of Stardom Title Tournament Final on 3/29/15, and was also the last woman to pin Io in a singles match on 9/3/16. The initial portion tonight was really good at making this seem like a big important title match. That was what was so lacking in Shirai's previous title match against Kagetsu, which seemed like a surefire hit except it wasn't the main event, and just never had any aura or atmosphere because despite Kagetsu being one of their most talent workers, they hadn't gotten her over to the point anyone could give her any chance to win. Shirai & Hojo were motivated for this match though, as they knew it would be their last in STARDOM, since Hojo was moving on from protending to be a real wrestler. Shirai & Hojo were tentative at the outset in a great way, as neither wanted to make the first mistake and get behind. Hojo slapped the canvas when she lost the test of strength, but was then able to counter back and forth in the second exchange to come out even. These exchanges were nothing exceptional in and of themselves, pretty much anyone in wrestling school can do them, but they were effective in laying the foundation for the importance of everything they were doing currently, and going forward. This both exemplified the strength and the weakness of this match in a nutshell though, as when it was on point, they were able to elevate somewhat mundane action into something that felt meaningful, but the lack of storytelling going forward resulted in a lot of it being rather underwhelming compared to the high standard Shirai has set. Mostly what they did was play off their previous encounters via callbacks and counters, which was good, but what else really could they do given Hojo never evolves her offense? Io was always a step ahead of Hojo, in good part because Hojo's offense is literally a handful of moves, to the point she pretty much only had one option for an actual move given the current setup and positioning of the wrestlers, and the rest of the time it was just the elbow or the breast slap. The highlight of Hojo being so predictable and easy to counter came when Io stopped her run of slaps in the corner by simply walking out of the corner! Some of the other counters were obviously more skillful and elaborate, but nothing was so hilarious! As they tried to pick up the action though, the problem of Hojo being so vanilla began to come to the fore. They basically just threw in some high flying, such as Io's entrance moonsault, then went back to more strikes or body work. Hojo eventually attacked Io's back, but when her idea of that was a standing Boston crab in the ropes, or in other words simply holding Io's legs, it was difficult to get too excited about or take it too seriously. Io was on the offensive the majority of the match since she actually has things she can do, and the best way to mask an unskilled robot is to just have them taking the whole time. They wisely set up Hojo for the big energetic babyface comeback, but it was too brief, as after Hojo hit a big diving footstomp to Io's back, they immediately killed the energy with a Boston crab, as if anyone believed Io was really going to submit to that nonsense. They did everything you would expect, for better and worse, and in the end, it felt like they were short on material due to Hojo's limited move set and capabilities, and were never able to take the match to a really exceptional level. Individual moves and counters by Shirai were, of course, impressive, and the match definitely worked, but if we are talking about the really great stuff, this falls very short of hitting an excellent level, even for moments here and there. It's just kind of rudimentary due to Hojo. That could still have worked if it had more urgency or intensity, but those aspects kind of flagged after the initial portion. While it's definitely not a bunch of stalling or meandering, it kind of settled in as a medium big match, never feeling like either had to really push themselves to find another level or even something above and beyond to leave with the belt. Hojo was able to kick out of the moonsault once before she was pinned in it, but that doesn't really qualify as taking it to the limit. Io definitely did a great job here in carrying this match, but even she can only take things so far. She did what she could, and definitely pulled one of the best singles matches of Hojo's career out of her. In a tag, you can spot Hojo and work around her a lot more to potentially manage something better, but she's kind of capped at about the ***1/2 level in a singles match, even against the best of the best. ***1/2

STARDOM 4/30/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Cinderella Tournament 2017 Final: Toni Storm vs. Mayu Iwatani 13:01
ML: This was their third match of the day, and even though their first two only amounted to about 7 minutes total, they were really putting over the toll of those matches. This resulted in a slower, and somewhat disappointing final given the talent involved. This wasn't exactly the best situation for Iwatani to shine, as Storm wasn't working a lot of sequences or generally giving her a ton of opportunities to show what a great worker she is, but Iwatani nonetheless totally made the match. She was very good, while Storm was fine but not particularly compelling, with her rather straightforward power game. I really liked the early matwork because it was a more MMA oriented version of the usual chain wrestling. It just seemed more credible and less throwaway, even though ultimately that's what it was. Also, this was when they were really working together, as the match progressed, it was mostly Mayu selling for Storm then briefly running/jumping at her. The slower pace was definitely an advantage for Storm, who was generally overwhelming Iwatani with her power. When Iwatani was able to use her quickness and athleticism, she could gain the advantage, but Storm's size was definitely a problem keeping her from sustaining it. Iwatani not surprisingly did a good job of playing the underdog, with strong selling and comebacks. Overall, the match could have benefited from more pace and more urgency. Storm was rather methodical, which is partially also because she doesn't have a ton to do in between her usual impressive power moves. I want to say that given the 3rd match of the day and the 15 minute time limit this worked but definitely didn't compel or excite the audience the way they are capable of, but it feels a bit of an excuse given this is the length that is actually best for what Storm has to offer, as once again shown by the dragging melodramatic faux epic 5/14/17 30:00 draw with Io Shirai that just crawled along throughout, with nothing particularly useful or interesting occuring during at least the first half, and then more of the silly Daichi nonsense we saw in the Baszler title challenge again just killing (what little) momentum they'd (finally) built up (through a few good minutes of action), though sadly Shirai was legitimately injured in that contest, so Murayama's improvising was more reasonable there. ***

STARDOM 5/14/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Wonder of Stardom Title Match: Kairi Hojo vs. Mayu Iwatani 19:44
ML: This began as kind of the same match as Io Shirai had with Hojo on 3/20/17, with the same strengths and weaknesses, and not just because Hojo basically made a career of doing the same few things. I once again liked the anticipation they were able to build up in the early exchanges, but then the match jumped ahead to the action with the requisite brawling on the floor and entranceway dive, which was nice to get things moving, but also felt forced because again Hojo is always doing the same few things. Once they were back in the ring, the match was forced to take a different path than the Shirai match, as Hojo was the champion here, and thus the theoretical favorite this time, although in reality everyone knew she was losing because she was about to join the circus. Nonetheless, Iwatani worked as the underdog, and thus Hojo had to get a lot more offense in, including working the back, which definitely was less interesting than when Shirai was dominating in March. Iwatani is by far the most motivated of the three in 2017 though, and she is both a lot more interested in actually doing things, as well as willing to put forth the effort in the lesser sequences and smaller interactions in order to sell the match as something that actually feels important. Iwatani's attitude and hard work goes a long way toward making her marginally good matches feel interesting, whereas Shirai's are feeling more by the numbers. Tonight's match turned when Iwatani began working over Hojo's right arm, including a nasty diving footstomp. This certainly wasn't the fastest paced Iwatani match ever, but it was much more spirited and intense than the sluggish Shirai versus Storm match that followed. It felt like they were actually advancing the match with what they were doing, and putting up a good struggle, even if it was never going to be confused with a sprint. Iwatani did some things that genuinely felt exciting though, bursts of energy to change the pace, whereas Shirai just displayed cool and clinical precision. Hojo is also a much more dramatic persona than Storm, which in this case was an advantage. This match felt more dynamic than slow, as they often picked the pace up, just not for very long stretches. They were able to mix things up enough to make it more interesting though by doing this. It may never have been great, and even felt a bit off at times, but it also never felt like it was dragging. There was actually some payoff to the body work, for instance, Iwatani was unable to maintain her bridge in the German suplex due to the backwork Hojo had done. For me, this was a much more interesting end to focus that we know isn't going to result in a submission than going overboard trying to act like these random non finishers are actually going to work. There wasn't really a big climax to this match, Iwatani was able to maintain her bridge in the Dragon suplex, and that was good enough. This match definitely benefited from being 20 minutes rather than 30, as Hojo was much more effective here getting by through her desire and charisma, rather than having to repeat the same old moves just to stretch it out. Hojo leaving could easily have been addition by subtraction, but the combination of Japan no longer seeming like the place to be, Shirai & Iwatani suffering injuries, Storm never defending the belt she wasn't supposed to have won when she was actually even around, and the insufferable retirement push of the sluggish, inept, and uncoordinated Z grade athlete Yoko Bites resulted in a rough second half of the year for the promotion even in spite of the great aquisition of Kagetsu. ***

STARDOM 8/13/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, World Of Stardom Title Match: Mayu Iwatani vs. Kagetsu 18:33
ML: A match between two of the most outstanding athletes and gifted workers in the sport that clearly had the potential to be STARDOM match of the year, except it wound up being all over the place, with the efforts to tell the tired and not conducive to a credible athletic contest story of the face overcoming insurmountable odds not really connecting with me even at the typical lame pro wrestling trope level. Granted, it was a massive improvement over the quasi handicap match we saw on 2/23/17 before Kagetsu was full time with the promotion, where the real handicap was Kris Wolf, who proved her value to in the range of -**. Tonight's match didn't build, it was simply divided into 5 portions. The opening high speed portion was really impressive, the best stuff here by far. The heel portion was typically stagnant, killing the momentum they had built up from the opening. The brawling on the outside was typically forced, but had two new savage bumps. The kicking portion didn't really work, not because it got off to an awkward start with Mayu accidentally missing, but because they were suddenly just spamming naked head kicks in the middle of a match with little striking elsewhere. Then they finally just went to the finishing portion, which revealed that the only real story of the match was that interference was keeping Iwatani from winning this easily, not the message they needed to send given their attempts to ascend Kagetsu to the ranks of top heel. Their athleticism and the general way they were able to perform the moves and sequences were more than a few cuts above though, and this was a rare chance for these two to actually improve and take things ot the next level. While the match clearly had a lot going for it in that regard, at the same time they were never fully able to harness their talents, so it didn't come together as something truly cohesive or compelling from a narrative perspective. It was nonetheless a strong effort, but while Kagetsu was working on the level of Io Shirai, I was very much wishing she would also just ignore that she's supposed to be a heel like Io, and get down to business more often. The opening was very energetic, and you could tell they were very excited to push their limits and develop these athletic counter sequences that they can't do with just anybody. Certainly, when I saw the quality of these early rope running sequences, I just wanted to see a Volador Jr. sort of match, as one of the reasons he one of the most exceptional rudos ever is precisely because he doesn't care about being a rudo in any traditional sense. Or in other words, almost anything that's causing him to break his stride isn't worth bothering with. Definitely none of the standing around was helping this match. When they were working at a fast pace though, the match was excellent, feeling a lot more organic and free-flowing than we get in STARDOM. Unfortunately, as much was slow and durdling, as was fast and flashy. The start of the match was an impressive progressive athletic contest, but it quickly fell into the same old tired face/heel patterns, before finishing in an impressive if not particularly dramatic fashion due to kind of meandering in between since they strayed from what they are really good at, and instead did things that are typical because mostly anyone can do them. The famous spot saw Iwatani's entranceway dive get thwarted by Oedo Tai interference, allowing Kagetsu to instead hang her off the entrance way, and actually just drop Mayu! Even though it wasn't that far and she was caught, this still felt kind of stupid given falling onto steps is an easy way to screw up an ankle or a knee. Iwatani also took a stuntwoman bump rolling backwards all the way down a flight of stairs as they took the match back into the ring. Sadly, this would be the highlight of Mayu's 1st World Of Stardom Title reign, as Yoko Bito is the sort of athlete that makes Ploddin' Sam Alvey seem like the second coming of Carl Lewis, and everything took a turn for the worse when Toni Storm accidentally injured Mayu a few minutes into their title match, which Storm then had to win. Storm winning would have been okay had she actually made herself available to defend the title in Japan rather than it being 7 months until she had a rematch with Mayu, which she inexplicably won, then only worked 3 more dates for the promotion the rest of the year. ***1/4

STARDOM 8/20/17 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st Ring, 5STAR Grand Prix 2017 Block A Match: Io Shirai [1] vs. Toni Storm [3] 15:00
ML: Here's an example of less is more, or why a 15 minute draw is sometimes much better than a 30 minute draw. The BS Road style epic they did on 5/14/17 where nothing happened for the 1st 15 minutes, and then maybe something would have eventually happened, except poor Io injured her neck, prompting referee Daichi Murayama to join in the stalling, was one of the most disappointing and overrated STARDOM matches of 2017. They had to work much faster in tonight's rematch because once again doing nothing early on in a 5Min Grand Prix match would have made it obvious that they were going the distance again. This was a strong second tier Io match where she showed the sort of motivation we got much less consistently in 2017 than in the previous few years. I would have expected more effort in their title match, but at least they made up for it here. It started quickly, and was mostly fast and energetic throughout. There were certainly slow segments in between, but they kept them to a reasonable time, and alternated the fast sequences with the submissions, so it wasn't dragging. It also never felt like they were filler because all the resting took place during Storm's neck work, which had purpose and justification given Io's injury. Since they were consistent in the neck storyline, and it had some reason for existing and payoff, this wound up being one of the most purposeful and cohesive Shirai matches of the year. There's never a question of the quality of work or the execution in Io's matches, at least not from her. Storm was quite good here, and very motivated as well. It seemed like they had something to prove after the dull and botched title match, but then again, everybody supposedly loved that match for some reason, so who knows? Storm was largely in control tonight, but Shirai made brief, exciting comebacks, and certainly felt very much in the match. The neck work was more than an equalizer though, showing that Storm was out to win at all costs, and built up to a few big near finishes, such as the air raid crash neckbreaker. They did such a better job with the time they had in this match, it felt like it could reasonably have gone another 5 minutes without the effort and intensity flagging, which I suppose was a reasonable place to leave things. Storm finally hit the big piledriver at the bell, so they tried to leave us with the feeling that she was about to win. In the end, this was the highlight of Shirai's 2017 post neck injury comeback. ***1/4

STARDOM 9/2/17 Yokohama Radiant Hall, 5STAR Grand Prix 2017 Block A Match: Io Shirai [5] vs. Kay Lee Ray [4] 11:54
ML: Kay Lee Ray is unquestionably the most talented foreign woman that has worked in Japan in the past decade. That being said, even she hasn't managed to produce much of note there compared to in the UK. Her best match by far against a Japanese wrestler was the 3/30/18 DASH Chisako match in EVE, which was legitimately excellent, and among the highlights of both women's careers. In STARDOM, no one really seems up for her speed brawls, or even her general aggression, and it tends to wind up with her running around a lot trying to find a way to make something happen. Shirai is one of the best women at doing the opponent's match because she has the talent to do any style, and can still add a lot while keeping the opposition in their comfort zone. This should not be confused with what someone such as Kazuchika Okada does, as he is only capable of running the same few simple programs, so "his" match is just the opponent playing marionette and setting him up for the few tired old things he can actually sort of manage to do. Ultimately, when they do it well, he somehow gets all the glory for actually contributing nothing of value, and when they don't do it well, he still somehow gets all the glory and none of the blame because he at least came out on top. Tonight we finally got something that approached a KLR match, albeit kind of a half speed, watered and toned down version. Luckily, the combined talent in the ring was off the charts, so even doing something nowhere near their actual individual or collective capabilities was still worth slightly recommending. Ironically, while this had the stiffness and diversity of a KLR match, it was missing the speed and explosiveness, which are the aspects you'd probably think were a given against Shirai, but Shirai has rarely gone that hard or fast this year. The key spot was Ray missing a charging front kick against the ropes, so Shirai tied her leg in the rope and hit a missile kick to injure the knee. Shirai proceeded to do the Muto knee tropes, but couldn't hit her moonsault on two tries. Unfortunately for Ray, getting her leg up to stop the moonsault did as much damage to her knee as it did to Io's stomach, and by the time Ray was finally able to make it to the top for her senton atomico, Shirai easily avoided, and tapped her with a Texas clover hold. Both parts of the match were good, but it felt very rushed trying to tack the knee story onto the general KLR stuff, and condense this all into something that was completed inside 12 minutes. Their UK match in BEW on 5/22/16 remains their best match together, but this was at least less disappointing than their 9/22/16 World Of Stardom Title Match. ***

STARDOM 9/18/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, 5STAR Grand Prix 2017 Block B Match: Kagetsu [10] vs. Mayu Iwatani [10] 12:18
PA: The final group match of the 5STAR Grand Prix. Kagetsu was already eliminated, but defeating Iwatani would prevent her from making the finals. Kagetsu decided to end it quickly by meeting Iwatani at the entrance and shoving the entrance set on top of her. As far as gimmick spots go, it was different and looked nasty because of the way Iwatani worked it. As usual, the attempted murder spot meant basically nothing. Kagetsu dragged Iwatani into the ring, missed her Oedo Coaster and that was about all she got for it, but at least it grabbed your attention and looked good. Iwatani did sell her neck as they exchanged spots, but both nipped up, and then we got onto the real match, which was pretty much a 10 minute barnburner. This was one of the better high speed style matches you'll see in STARDOM. They worked at a fast pace throughout, did all kinds of sequences, good striking exchanges and counters without ever getting too contrived or moving away from the goal. Kagetsu's heeling helped the match. She's unhinged and arrogant. She'll cheat as she needs to, or just "because it's fun". She doesn't just want to beat Iwatani, she wants to have fun and humiliate her while she's at it. Kagetsu can get bogged down with that stuff, as was the case in their 8/13 match. Here she didn't and it provided valuable, brief slowdowns to make the fast paced work stand out more and give Iwatani logical openings for her comebacks. The match was urgent throughout, but peaked in the final portion where it should have. They worked a great back and forth finish where Kagetsu had the upper hand, but Iwatani kept slipping out of the big moves. Iwatani got into a position to hit her Dragon suplex but Kagetsu slipped out of it, shoved her into referee Daichi, and used the mist to set up her Oedo Coaster to get the win. There's an example of a good 'screwy' finish, and the only one that made sense, because that's where the match was building to right from the outset. Excellent match, probably the best Stardom offering of 2017. ****

ML: My general opinion on the current wrestling scene can be summed up by my preference for this 12 minute match over the 28 minute 6/21/17 Io Shirai vs. Mayu Iwatani title match as 2017 STARDOM match of the year. Actually going all out for the duration is much more memorable than all the inactivity and smoke and mirrors that make up the BS Road style epics, which when you get down to it, really only contain, at most, a few minutes of truly hard fought action. Even a better version of that style isn't better than Iwatani going all out, which is why that match wasn't as good as this, or especiallt the classic Iwatani/Shirai singles matches from 2016. There were a few spots here that could have turned out better, but Kagetsu & Iwatani really went above and beyond in terms of effort, pace, and level of difficulty. This was their chance to see what they could really do, and unlike in their 6 minutes longer 8/13/17 title match, tonight they really seized it and did their best to reach their utmost potential. The title match had good individual aspects, but just felt like a mess with several portions of a match pasted together. This was extremely energetic, which was a pleasant change, but it wasn't merely energetic, it was energetic with a purpose beyond just doing impressive looking things. They did many of the same things here, but in a more cohesive manner, as they structured the match in a way that the disperate aspects actually worked, partially because they still did a sprint throughout rather than doing long portions of varying paces for no particular reason. More importantly to the grand scheme of things, this match both got Kagetsu over as a top flight unhinged heel who would do anything it took to win, while at the same time brought out a much more confident and determined version of Iwatani. Even though Mayu ultimately lost due to shenanigans, she felt more mature and sure of herself as an actual ace here in this role as the highly driven babyface who had the desire to keep stepping up to battle through all the adversity. One of the reasons this match worked so much better than their previous one is they got the brawling out of the way at the outset, so it wasn't simply a diversionary trope. This opening was also some surprising and insane stuff from Kagetsu, who not only attacked Iwatani with the Oedo Tai sign as soon as Mayu came out of the entrance, she then tried to murder her by toppling the entrance gate itself, which bizarrely had a W-1 banner, on top of Iwatani, trapping her neck between the gate and the guardrail (with much assistance from Iwatani to make it come off). Definitely, an opening like this got my attention, and once they got back into the ring, they were able to hold it by backing it up with some fantastic, fast-paced athletic wrestling. As amazing an athlete as Mayu is, Kagetsu proved to be her match and then some, actually being the faster mover of the two. Her speed turning and spinning was particularly off the charts. Even compared to the best stuff STARDOM has produced in 2017, the action was so quick it almost seemed to be in fast forward, particularly from Kagetsu. Kagetsu missed her Oedo coaster (450 splash) upon reentering the ring, and what followed was a spectacular sprint with the sort of urgency I've been waiting for from a STARDOM match all year. Kagetsu couldn't advance to the 5Min GP Final, but a win here would at least provide the moral victory of keeping Iwatani out. Kagetsu worked as if the stakes were much grander than that though, and it just makes one wonder where this was in their actual title match? Kagetsu still worked in some general taunting and heel tactics now and then, but didn't get diverted from bringing fantastic action for long. The heel stuff wasn't annoying here because it didn't slow things down really, and was more for a big effect or turning point than the usual crap that's just trying to shave time by being annoying to everyone. Iwatani kept making hot comebacks, but Kagetsu always found a way to beat her back down, whether or not it was a legal one was a different story. The finish saw Kagetsu roll through Mayu's Dragon suplex, and push Iwatani into referee Murayama, then spew mist into Iwatani's face to set up hitting the Oedo coaster for the win. Just a really exciting sprint with lots of great sequences and counters. Sure, it's short, but there was seemingly 5 times as much action in this match as in any other match from the promotion this year. In the end, isn't that what we actually tune in to see? ****

STARDOM Kagetsu Produce Thank You For Everything 10/28/17 Osaka Minato Ward Community Center, Io Shirai vs. Kagetsu 17:06
ML: A definite improvement over their 3/5/17 title match because Kagetsu was a much bigger star in STARDOM now, so they had to do a lot more and Shirai had to take her as a lot more serious threat. This match still never really felt like it hit it stride though. Both women did a lot of nice moves, but their attempts at storytelling tended to fall flat in the dramatic camp, for instance Shirai being unable to capitalize on getting her knees up for the Oedo coaster because the counter somehow did too much damage to her knee, which hadn't otherwise really been damaged during the bout. Nonetheless, as with Shirai vs. KLR, the quality of the workers themselves was enough to push it into the level of mild recommendation. Kagetsu didn't play heel because it was her own show, she instead played the local territory favority, but that didn't work out as good as it sounds because Shirai just wound up playing the incoming invader heel. Kagetsu is better at playing heel, if someone must, because Kagetsu tends to use her heel work, at least in the important matches, for bigger effects rather than getting bogged down by it, whereas tonight Shirai was basically just playing heel to slow things down. In other words, Shirai's heel work mostly felt like padding that was simply there to minimize the amount of actual good sequences they had to do. It helped get Kagetsu over as the underdog, though one could think of more interesting ways to do that, and the fans were cheering for Kagetsu, so it served its purpose to an extent despite feeling rather random and meandering. They still struggled to get heat through Shirai's methodical tactics, as well as her doing an underdeveloped job at working over the neck (and back) that no one took seriously, partly because she was going to win with the moonsault again, as always. The fast sequences were impressive though, and there were quite a few of them. This had more showy feel to it when it was good than the Kagetsu vs. Iwatani matches, and those definitely felt much more urgent and important than this. ***

SEAdLINNNG 5/13/22 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Title: Arisa Nakajima vs. Riko Kaiju 19:58
PA: This was a fairly basic styled veteran vs. junior match, and a really good example of a veteran raising up a youngster. Riko was immediately trying to press Nakajima, but constantly getting cut off. She did a great job of selling not only the moves, but also her frustration. Nakajima was only amused by the junior early on, but Riko got her attention when they spilled to the floor. Nakajima was selling more seriously, and Riko was making some inroads until she made the mistake of going to the top rope. Nakajima decided it was time to punish the kid, putting the boots to her and slapping her around. Riko's lip got cut at some point, which made it more impactful, and she sold really well. Nakajima was in complete control, casually destroying Riko. Riko tried to fight back, but could only muster up a weak dropkick, so Arisa mocked her and told her to fight back, and she did! Riko fired up with a couple of slaps and dropkicks, and she armdragged Arisa off the top rope. It got her a double down, but she made it up first and was able to hit a few spots. She was still beaten down, so it was slow going with plenty of selling in between. That match was really good to this point, but went a bit downhill with the phony strike exchange trope spot. Arisa was involved, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, they at least didn't take forever and sold the strikes. Riko got the worst of it, but came back with a lousy half crab, and Nakajima struggled to the ropes. Riko started going for desperation elbow strikes, which no one reacted to because it's another done to death phony strike spot that no one buys. Arisa's bullshit detector never fails though, she brought some legit striking back and demonstrated to Riko how to do it properly by potatoing her with elbows to the face, then put her away with her Dragon suplex, to end the match on a good note. How could you not love her? This was a such a good match until the last 5 minutes or so. Riko shows a lot of potential. She was getting tired by the end so her execution suffered, but her selling was excellent for her experience level. Arisa was great, and showed why she's the best women's worker on the scene. ***1/4

ML: While no one can fault Arisa for leaving the rotting carcass known as JWP, at least JWP had some legitimately skilled opponents for her in the actual league such as Bolshoi, Nakamori, and Leon. The problem with her SEAdLINNNG run from day one has been that the only legitimate talent (maybe we can include freelancer ASUKA once she gained more experience since she is a regular there) has been outsiders such as Fujimoto, Iroha, Matsumoto, & Nakamori again, so like most of these little leagues with one legitimate wrestler that are barely existing today, there's just not a lot happening there on a regular or consistent basis. Second year wrestler Kaiju is one of the most promising young wrestlers in Japan, and is definitely patterning herself after a young Arisa, with a ton of energy and a shoot style bend. Kaiju isn't the best prospect on paper in the sense that she's barely 5'1", and nowhere near the level of athlete that some of the smaller women who broke out such as Momoe Nakanishi or Natsuki*Taiyo were. For her experience level, even the weakest aspects of her game are very impressive by today's low standards for "prospects" though . Her work ethic is incredibly strong and consistent, and her desire and willingness to put forth the effort clearly comes through to the point of making her exciting even when she's not doing anything special, which probably enough to ultimately become a standout in the current landscape. She's certainly a challenger in name only, but given her great efforts on the undercards, you knew she'd be more than a willing opponent who was excited about the prospect of being pulled through a match by the great champion. Kaiju's striking is good technically, and while it's modeled after Nakajima's, Nakajima is still the master at putting the actual intensity into it that is so lacking from most others. This produced much of the best stuff here, as they were either using a strike to set up a big move or throwing an aggressive flurry rather than doing the usual foolish exchanges. Kaiju's rope running wasn't that fluid today, perhaps she was just nervous as she seemed much more confident in her next few performances. The structure of the match was basically Nakajima selling way more than she had to in order to make Kaiju come off as something of a credible challenger, then giving her the same offense back to show her how it's expertly done. Nakajima was really beating the crap out of this poor kid, and if there were actually any live human beings in the building, the match should have had some atmosphere and drama, but it's difficult for this type of prospect pushing the establishment match to really come off in what feels like an empty arena because you need to be swept up by the spirit and enthusiasm of the underdog to somehow delude yourself into contemplating that they might somehow win. The match improved considerably when they started chaining counters, with Nakajima ultimately having one more move or maneuver to win the sequences because she has the talent and experience. It didn't really build to any spectacular climax, but again, it was an honor for Kaiju to simply be in the ring forcing Arisa to deal with her at all. In the end, they did their best to make this come off as a competitive title match rather than a great star schooling a promising kid. Nakajima was her exceptional self even though she wasn't working nearly as hard or fast as she's capable of, and Kaiju held up her end, so there was certainly a lot more to be enthusiastic about here than when Arisa is stuck dealing with the slug Nanae or the thug YOSHIKO. ***

SEAdLINNNG 6/10/22 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Riko Kawahata & SAKI vs. Arisa Nakajima & Riko Kaiju 20:29.
ML: I was a bit skeptical here because we were adding two workers to the good Nakajima vs. Kaiju title match from last month, and now those two were representing SEAdLINNNG, teaming together against the outsiders, so they weren't escalating whatever rivalry could be said to exist between the two coming off Kaiju's predictable loss. Also, SAKI isn't the most enthusiastic worker, and as with Kaiju, Kawahata is a young work in progress. This definitely wasn't the usual match that was falling apart the second Nakajima tagged though. I was far more impressed with Kaiju here than I was in the title match. Her energy and intensity really went a long way towards making this match, and was more than matched by Kawahata, who was perhaps the most impressive. Kawahata is another of the best prospects in Japan, and theoretically has a much higher upside than Kaiju because she is a far superior athlete. She moves really well, and has a lot of flexibility and dexterity despite being at least average sized. Honestly, the best portions of the match were Kaiju against Kawahata, as they really took this seriously and went hard. Nakajima is always tops, but SAKI is kind of passionless to the point of being just kind of there, a totally competent but not particularly energetic performer who didn't make things particularly exciting despite doing everything pretty well. She was largely matched with Nakajima, which made sense because they are around the same age and both more or less have their own league. I definitely don't want to make it sound like SAKI was a lot worse than the others, she executed everything well, it's just that her demeanor made her less interesting to watch, whereas everyone else's made them and the match more interesting to watch. Kawahata and Kaiju really beat each other up here, laying into each other with the strikes. These segments were very energetic, and they kept moving and mixing in counters that weren't strikes, so it wasn't obvious that they were just doing another striking sequence now, or repetitive in the strikes that they used. Kawahata has some nice high and middle kicks, and continued the impressive energetic striking with Nakajima. The athleticism of Kawahata is certainly a thing, but honestly the difference between her sequences and SAKI's was the energy, and that made a lot of difference. In the end, this was mostly a striking battle, but the fact that they mixed striking in with quick athletic and power offense made it much less predictable and more interesting then the usual Kobashi vs. Kensuke tropes, giving things a much more opportunistic feel. ***

SEAdLINNNG 6/30/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Ayame Sasamura vs. Riko Kaiju 15:00
ML: An outstanding effort. This wasn't the most evolved offensive match you will ever see, but flashy offense with nothing to back it up is one of the big issues in wrestling today, especially in these joshi and independent leagues that don't offer much in the way of fundamental training, or perhaps training at all? This match may be kind of an evolved rookie match, Kaiju had been wrestling 2 years while Sasamura had been wrestling 5, but at the same time it was kind of everything I want to see from pro wrestling in general. It was energetic, aggresive, & urgent, fast paced & hard hitting, more shoot oriented in its striking techniques, and generally an all-out effort that represents the best these two were capable of doing. These two are usually partners, but fought really hard, with a take no prisoners attitude, for the duration. There were a lot of body slams and dropkicks, basic stuff early on, but there were also tons of nasty blows, some nice suplexes down the stretch, and some variety and diversity in the style and pacing. The match felt more like in an Arisa Nakajima match than the actual Arisa Nakajima matches I've been watching from 2022 do. They were fighting with the energy and exhuberance we are used to from Nakajima, but that Nakajima hasn't been producing now that she has slotted herself comfortably into the role of the dominant star of the promotion. In fact, even though Sasamura probably isn't 1/20 the wrestler that Nakajima is even on a bad day, the effort and energy displayed here from these two made the match more interesting then Kaiju's title challenge against Nakajima from the previous month. The best aspect of their offense, particulary from Sasamura, was the striking. They are very stiff, but also like Arisa actually willing to throw flurries of strikes and be less predictable, rather than simply exchanging as a tired old trope. A nice touch saw Kaiju beat Sasamura to the strike because Sasamura wound up, telegraphing it, allowing Kaiju to react by throwing a shorter and more direct blow. Kaiju then decided to run the ropes though, so Sasamura said, if you are going to do those kind of shenanigans, I'm just going to knock you down and give you an ultra beatdown with some ground and pound. There were a lot of slaps and elbows in this match, but they were ultra stiff. It kind of felt like the old shoot fighting days when they were using palms because they weren't wearing gloves, smart enough not to hurt themselves rather than afraid of hurting the opponent. Sasamura threw some really heavy elbows. She isn't as evolved as Kaiju despite being 6 years older, but she can get her body into her strikes very well, that's for sure. These two actually look pretty similar, and their offense isn't drastically different either, with the exception of Kaiju definitely being both the better athlete and the more fluid and confident of the two. Sasamura was sometimes prone to waiting and hesitating. She did better in the striking portions, while Kaiju, as definitely the quicker and more explosive performer, was also able to mix in some more junior style action that kept things from getting repetitive. It would have been fine if someone won a minute or three before the 15 minute time limit, but for the most part this was a match that was actually the proper length. They had the energy to sustain this amount of time for sure, presumably their offense will get there, and that will allow them to take it to the next level. ***1/4

GLEAT 4/12/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, LIDET UWF Title Tournament Semifinal: Takanori Ito vs. Yu Iizuka 12:40.
DC: Yu Iizuka didn't shake Takanori Ito's hand, and surprised him with a takedown right away. This shows that Iizuka felt the importance of this fight. Iizuka went for a leg submission immediately, as he seemed to want to end this match as quickly as possible. Ito had to use his first rope break 25 seconds into the match. Both participants showed a great deal of concentration, as they both didn't want to make a mistake. This approach really sold the idea that every move could be crucial. During the standup striking, they showed a lot of intensity. Most importantly, they showed urgency through speedy combinations, and they certainly weren't just standing there and waiting for the other to strike. There was a cool-looking spot around the 6-minute mark that saw Iizuka go for a submission hold, and Ito literally just dropped to the canvas in order to get Iizuka off of him. If this wasn't done intentionally, then it was just a lucky accident. Either way, Iizuka did eventually get Ito stuck in a hold that made Ito go for his second rope break. It had become clear that Iizuka was more dangerous with submissions, and Ito was more dangerous in standup striking. This explains why Ito told Iizuka to get back up when Iizuka challenged Ito to come down to the mat to grapple with him. Iizuka went for some quick transitions on the mat until Ito backdrop suplexed him. Ito then literally kicked Iizuka out of the ring, which resulted in Iizuka losing a point. It didn't take Iizuka long to get back on track and have Ito stuck in a leg submission, which made Ito go for a rope escape. After a couple of kicks to the head by Ito, Iizuka went down. The referee stopped the fight out of concern for Iizuka's well-being. Ito was awarded the win, and he will be in the final of the tournament. As well as Iizuka did in this match, having Ito in the final feels like the right decision, since Ito has been one of GLEAT's most reliable performers. It wasn't quite a great match, but it was excellent. What made this match so excellent was the fact that they really put over so well that they were out there to beat each other and trying to be one step ahead of the other. They did this through the way they reacted to each other, as they blocked, countered and escaped urgently whenever it was needed. It's always refreshing to see a match like this, and this is the type of match that makes GLEAT so worthy to keep an eye on. ****

GLEAT 4/12/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, LIDET UWF Title Tournament Semifinal: Shinya Aoki vs. Hikaru Sato 5:16.
DC: These are two of the best shoot style workers in puroresu today. It's such a shame that they only got five minutes, but they really did more with five minutes than most workers do with 25 minutes. Shinya Aoki is one of the most intriguing performers whenever he gets to work these types of matches, because he not only hits his opponents with well-thrown kicks, he also challenges his opponent to hit him as hard as they can. His desire to bring some more realism to pro wrestling is admirable. Hikaru Sato tried to block Aoki's kicks, but Aoki wouldn't stop kicking until Sato finally managed to grab hold of the leg. Sato quickly took Aoki down to the mat. What we got then was some very intriguing matwork that had both participants struggle for position. They were avoiding each other's holds, and they were desperately trying to get the other stuck in a hold. The current wrestling scene needs more matches like this one. The only reason this match never reached a level of excellence was the short duration of the match. Things ended after only five minutes, as the referee stopped the fight when Sato was not able to respond after being stuck in a hold for a while. As a result of winning this match, Aoki will face Takanori Ito in the tournament final, which should be a very interesting match. A 3.5-star rating might seem high for a 5-minute match, but based on the work they showed, this was heading towards excellence. Also, these five minutes were better and felt more sincere than most of the longer pro wrestling matches this year. ***½