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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 20516--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar’s PPV of the Week; The Hand Off
By: SheriffLonestar Date: November 9, 2013, 1:35 am
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Card of the year; Are we too early for that? I think not, I am
going to start running down some options for what was hot and
what was not in the year of 2013 in the coming weeks, with some
obvious options and some personal favourites. We start with
Stardom’s The Highest. In Korakuren Hall in Tokyo, Japan, on the
17th of March 1,250 fans witnessed what was an era changing
event. I wanted to start with this event because it is my
favourite card of the year but also as we talked about it in
last week’s column and I really intended to write about it
sooner but times gives us perspective and having watched it
again to write this I can still say it is my favourite.
Stardom has been around for a couple of years now and base their
product on some tried and tested Joshi methods of promotion as
well as refining some methods that have changed elsewhere. Their
two key components to success have been Nanae Takahashi, the
president and World of Stardom Champion and former Wonder of
Stardom Champion Yuzuki Aikawa. As Aikawa was on her way to
retirement at the end of this tour there was a sense of
uncertainty as to how the company would fair without one of that
golden duo. On the whole the company has done well, and two of
the reasons are the acquisitions of two free agent talents not
long before this card aired; Dark Angel Sarah Stock and Alpha
Female. Those of you who follow my twitter feed will know I am a
big fan of both of these wrestlers. They are well rounded,
articulate workers and all though they are behind a language
barrier they have done as well and in fact considerably better
than any gaijins in Joshi since Reggie Bennett 18 years ago.
The opener is Yuzuki Aikawa vs my favourite wrestler, and I
spent all year bleating how she is the best in the world so I am
not going to stop now, Meiko Satomura. Meiko is of course on
loan from her own promotion where she is figure head; Sendai
Girls. Having had some stunning matches with opposite number
Nanae Takahashi of Stardom in the last couple of years, she was
a good choice for an opponent for Aikawa in this retirement run
and adds some prestige to her glowing resume of opponents even
at after only a three year career. Aikawa is not your atypical
Joshi wrestler; in fact she was the inspiration behind the
entire Satrdom promotion. She first came to the attention of
former wrestler, MMA star and model Fuka Kakimoto. Fuka as she
is known saw quite spark in Aikawa, trained in Taekwando and
ballet and with natural athleticism and charisma, and in turn
took her to meet for JD Star promoter Rossy Ogawa. Seeing the
potential and knowing of the pitfalls of presenting a new
promotion as a “pretty girls” outfit, as JD Star had been
perceived, they brought on board former WWWA Champion and the
last great product of the AJW system Nanae Takahashi. In a
stroke of promotional genius they inaugural match for Aikawa was
with Takahashi where she took a tremendous beating after 14
minutes Takahashi announced that Aikawa had paid her dues and
could set about her career properly, leaving Aikawa with a black
eye and swollen cheek. It was partly an exorcism, and partly
preparation, but mostly a way of separating her and the other
models that would end up working for the company, from those of
the past. JD Star had lived and died by the attractiveness of
its combatants and suffered at the gate or at least that was the
perception, though I liked their style and matches. This time
they were going about it the right way with a balance of models
like Aikawa and pure wrestlers like Takahashi, the result has
been amazing. The company also has the sense to model itself on
the familiar and allude to greatness. If Sendai Girls feels like
an equivalent to GAEA for today’s audience (hard not to when one
of their biggest draws was one of GAEA’s biggest draws), then
Stardom is channelling the spirit of All Japan Women. There is
Takahashi of course then at the bow of the ship, but also notice
the shade of red that the World of Stardom Champion wears, very
familiar to the iconic red leather of the WWWA belt. The Wonder
of Stardom Championship also reflects the secondary title of AJW
the WWWA All Pacific Title with its white strap, see below.
HTML http://topropebelts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/StardomWorld-1-300x300.jpg
HTML http://topropebelts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/DSC05036-r50-300x300.jpg
STARDOM Tag Wars Tournament: Miho Wakizawa & Eri Susa vs Yui
Yokoo & Sumire Yoshino vs Dark Angel & Kellie Skater vs Io
Shirai & Mayu Iwatani vs Natsumi Showzuki & Kairi Hojo
One thing Stardom has done so well, especially this year, is to
mix freelancers with imports from foreign climbs and home grown
talent in a way that has been most gratifying. Stardom Tag Wars
Tournament was a great advert for this approach with a mix of
veterans; Wakizawa and Io Shirai, imports; Dark Angel and Kellie
Skater and younger grapplers like Yui Yokoo & Sumire Yoshino.
This “Winner Stays On” format also keeps things moving and
highlights a lot of talent in a tearing great hurry. This is
also remarkable because the company tended not to feature
freelancers in its early existence, trying to feature its own
stars instead, which obviously paid of dividends in star
production and match quality for home grown talent. The whole
tournament finishes with one of the most amazing top rope
manoeuvres you will ever see.
Special Scramble Singles War: Kaori Yoneyama vs Act Yasukawa vs
Amazon vs Yuhi
This is possible the best example of why you should keep multi
member singles matches to a minimum, this one works a treat, but
could get old really quick if you were not careful. JWP veteran
and former Open Weight Champion Yoneyama is particularly given a
chance to show off her skills as the lucha inspired speed worker
with Yuhi, the perfect face antidote to Act Yasukawa’s comedy
heel and the best possible underdog against Amazon’s power. A
true balance of forces in this four way.
Goddesses of STARDOM Title: Natsuki*Taiyo & Yoshiko (c) vs Kyoko
Kimura & Hailey Hatred
This tag team battle features two of Stardom’s biggest home
grown talents in Yoshiko and Taiyo versus two newly minted uber
heels in Hatred and Kimura, the main force behind the
Monster-gun group. Stardom works in a set of groups much like
Mid South did with Bill Watts booking. This means combinations
of groups can work together over a long period of time and can
build individual stars from a group’s popularity. Unlike Bill
though Stardom have given the groups names which means you can
build angles and of course sell T shirts, a god send for a small
promotion. Taiyo and Yoshiko’s group Kawakatsu Gun with Taiyo as
its leader began this feud when Kimura left the group after
losing a match to Taiyo for leadership of Kawakatsu-gun. This
heated rivalry produced this amazing match and began to cement
Monster-gun’s position of dominance in the early part of the
year. Their shining moment though would come later in the card.
Both teams go at it with passion and heat which has been missing
from any other tag matches I have seen in 2013. The pace is
amazing and reminds me of the absolute classic matches that AJW
produced in the same building all those years ago. This is the
best tag match I saw all year, even better than the Young Bucks
and Bad Influence, in a series that mattered, it is quite simply
breathtaking
World of STARDOM Title: Nanae Takahashi (c) vs Alpha Female
And so we get to the main event of the evening. The World of
Stardom Championship on the line, with Monster-guns Alpha Female
challenging Nanae Takahashi. In her Ringbelles interview after
this match, Alpha related how great she felt going into the
match having upped her training and work ethic, something I
greatly admire about her, to keep up with the incredible veteran
Takahashi. What made this special for me though was the big
fight feel which is sadly lacking in wrestling promotions in the
States these days. Having been mired under a glut of characters,
over exposure and to be honest predictability, it is difficult
to build up wrestlers for one big match. The traditional
Japanese pre ring ceremony of pictures and showing the belt
gives things that extra edge of presentation, I know it is
standard in Japan but it makes you feel like something special
is going to happen and boy did it. Starting out with straight
mat work these two brought the best out in one another. If it
reminded me of anything I have seen before it was Shinya
Hashimoto’s IWGP title defences against Scott Norton back in the
early ‘90s. It was that good. This has been a great year for
women’s wrestling. Taryn Terell and Gail Kim stole the show at
Slammiversary in June that was easily the TNA match of the year,
even the guys haven’t produced anything that good and no one was
talking about Bully and Sting after. Though that was an amazing
brawl, this was better. It told a better story, the noble
veteran against the rampaging monster. It started an amazing
year with Stardom for Alpha.
For Alpha Female and Sarah Stock in fact 2013 has been very good
indeed. With the Dark Angel taking the Wonder of Stardom title
not long after this card, she lost it last week, but she was an
excellent champion and had a hard act to follow. What has been
good for them has been good for the company to; their mix of
pure wrestling, poster selling girls and old school booking and
presentation is making them the most vital women’s company on
the planet right now. To quote Bill Watts; “Ladies, it simply
doesn’t get any better than that.” The legacy of All Japan Women
is safe in their hands.
Enjoy the show.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfKj3nOi4f4
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