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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 13432--------------------------------------------------
SheriffLonestar's PPV of the Week 15/6/13; Not Just a Pretty Fac
e
By: SheriffLonestar Date: June 15, 2013, 3:11 am
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So last week we looked at the very top of the artistic wrestling
excellence. This week I am bringing things back to the modern
day with Wonder Ring Stardom and its The Highest event. A card
that may not be as important as Dream Slam II, but is
representative of the current Joshi Market and had some
groundbreaking of its own to do.
Back in the day the Matsunaga Brothers who controlled All Japan
Women, and its talent had some very strict and simple rules; No
Men, No Smoking, No Drugs, No Drinking. You will retire at 26.
The 26 rule was two fold, first it meant that most women would
retire healthy, the match quality of AJW fans demanded where so
high wrestlers where crippling themselves to get over. It is no
secret that Akira Hokuto was a walking wreck through most of her
career. The second reason behind the rule, it ensured a fresh
set of faces at the top of the card and meant that there was
always a cycle of up and comers and down and go-ers. A prime
exampled was Chigusa Nagayo. As shown in Dream Slam II Nagayo's
star was on the fall. A wrestling phenomena in the eighties as
part of the Crush Girls tag team (if you think Hogan was over
type Crush Girls into google and find out what over really
means), Nagayo was heading towards 26 and pretty much finished
with All Japan Women. She retired with the company and settled
down. However it wasn't but a couple of years before she got
itchy feet again and started the GAEA Company. As shown in the
GAEA girls documentary, which is a must see for any wrestling
fan, Nagayo set up her promotion on the foundation the
Matsunaga's had given her. Her bankable feud with the
also-out-of-retirement Lioness Asuka, her partner in the Crush
Girls, guaranteed interest. Most importantly it meant the long
term success of her promotion and it opened the floodgates. All
Japan Women became a breeding ground for future promoters and
company figure heads. As did GAEA and as the Joshi dissolved
into many different companies many different styles began to
form.
The current Joshi scene is a mixed bag of comedy, Lucha, shoot
style and traditional Joshi. However the promotion making the
biggest splash this year, artistically and in ticket sales, is
World Wonder Ring Stardom. Stardom (as it shall now be known) is
the brain child of Rossy Ogawa (former AJW backer and owner of
JDStar), former model wrestler and shoot fighter Fuka Kakimoto
as well as AJW veteran and last WWWA Champion Nanae Takahashi.
In many ways Stardom is a refinement of two promotions that had
varied success in the late nighties and mid 2000's. Ogawa's
first solo shot at promotional glory was the artistically
successful ARISON promotion which was shoot and lucha heavy and
headed up by Aja Kong and future Impact Wrestling star Ayako
Hamada. The company fizzled into acrimonious political fall out
within two years. His next promotion was polar opposite, JDStar
featured good looking women, trying to cash in on the beauty
angle of its protagonists. Which would have been fun but, and
there is always a but, Joshi fans like wrestling first, beauty
second. It was no good if they looked great and couldn't
wrestle, the pretty girl promotion lost ground because it was
dismissed as a vanity laden mess. Looking back at those cards
now it really wasn't, but compared to Sendai of Girls or JWP, it
looked like a bunch of girls playing at wrestling. It also
didn't help when it came to inter promotional work, the life
blood of Joshi these days. Wrestlers from other promotions would
either refuse to work JDStar, or work incredibly stiffly with
the former models making them look inept. (Bare in mind most
women in Joshi are shoot capable as they train incredibly hard
and have to have the tools in the bag considering the amount of
cross promotion). There had to be a balance. When Fuka Kakimoto
retired she brought forward the idea of a balanced approach. As
a shooter she understood that the attraction had to be the
wrestling, as a model she knew that good looking women will sell
posters and T Shirts. She also needed a Joshi legend to head up
the promotion like Meiko Satomura in Sendai Girls or Emi Sakura
in Ice Ribbon they also needed a locker room leader. That would
end up being Nanae Takahashi. The end result was a promotion
with diverse talents that wasn't afraid of going against the
grain, had big women, smaller women, and most importantly titles
that meant something. They are also starting to draw big.
So this weeks PPV of the week is headlined by the aforementioned
Nanae Takahashi defending the World of Stardom Championship
against Alfa Female, perennial Wonder of Stardom Champion Yuzuki
Aikawa taking on Meiko Satomura, in my opinion the real Best in
the World. As well as Kimura Monster-gun Hailey Hatred and Kyoko
Kimura challenging Natsuki☆Taiyo and Yoshiko for the
Goddesses of Stardom Tag Titles.
This for me is the most interesting card of the year and it sets
the tone for where the company will go in the next year. It is a
company that is claiming lineage back to Joshi's glory days, and
is starting to pull the crowds in to prove it.
Enjoy the show.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfKj3nOi4f4
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