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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 23673--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; A Close Shave
By: SheriffLonestar Date: February 1, 2014, 1:35 am
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This week's PPV of the Week hails from Yokahama, Japan and has
actually become one of my favourite cards of last year. Oz
Academy are a little bit different than any other women's
promotion in the world. Being owned by Mayumi Ozaki the key
thing for them is heat. White hot heat. Not something you come
across every day for sure in the modern, pristine clean land
that is mainstream wrestling. They achieve heat the old
fashioned way too, by having a lead heel, with a strong stable
for back up, who is the most despicable in all of Joshi, the
aforementioned Ozaki who is of course the owner of the company,
but she knows how to make a crowd pop. Her long career has given
her access to some of the biggest names in women's wrestling and
that means star studded cards being given creative freedom and a
platform to work that can be just breath taking.
I have looked at Oz Academy before where I explained the premise
of the promotion and its strong work ethic.
HTML http://www.tnafanforum.com/sheriff-lonestar's-ppv-of-the-week/sheriff-lonestar's-ppv-of-the-week-when-reality-meets-storyline/
So without further ado let us move on to these here matches.
Syuri & Kagetsu vs Arisa Nakajima & Hikaru Shida
Hikaru Shida has had a break out year this year, putting in a
star turn in Sendai Girls' 8 on 8 veterans versus rookies
eliminator. This tag match highlights her strengths, Kagetsu
worked the anchor leg against Aja Kong, and both have strong
showings here. Shida fits the Oz Academy style perfectly for a
youngster, good looking athletic and swings a mean kendo stick.
She doesn't look like the rebirth of the Sandman, but after
bleeding hard way against Ozaki earlier in the year I have the
utmost respect for her work ethic and abilities. Syuri and
Nakajima are none to sloppy either. Kagetsu is getting her big
break in Sendai Girls as the protégée of Meiko Satomura who has
just turned on her mentor. She has aligned herself with the
biggest Joshi star of all time Chigsau Nagayo. Imagine if you
will Tommy Dreamer turning his back on Terry Funk and you get
the idea. In fact this card highlighted for me the similarities
between Oz Academy and old school ECW. Heat getting heels, a
smidgen of violence in the right places and some stellar
athletic ability at the top of the card. This is a cracking
opener and sets the tone for the whole event.
Kyoko Inoue, Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs Dynamite Kansai,
Yumiko Hotta & GAMI
This is as old school Joshi as it gets. GAMI was on her way to
her retirement, but teamed up with Kansai and Hotta to take on
Inoue, Toyota and Shimoda. All six of these athletes approaching
or are on and around the forty mark. However none of them show
any signs of slowing down. A bit of a high spots match really,
GAMI's rope walk ala The Undertaker, Manami's top rope drop
kicks that still make her worthy of her Flying Angel nick name,
Hotta and Kansai dispensing kicks and Inoue being Inoue, and
Shimoda being Shimoda The All Japan Women's class of '87,
perhaps the greatest crop of talent ever to come out of one Dojo
at once, is well represented here. This is not as vital as other
matches on the card, and it was probably for the best to keep
the veterans all in one spot as they had no issue to promote,
they are just having fun, which can not be said about the next
match.
KANA vs Carlos Amano
Amano is a bare foot wrestler who grew a reputation in her JWP
days as a tireless tough as nails worker who despite her stature
was able to take and dish out unbelievable punishment. KANA s a
bare foot wrestler who grew a reputation in her AtoZ days as a
tireless tough as nails worker who despite her stature was able
to take and dish out unbelievable punishment. You can see why
these two make great dance partners. This is no sell city and as
stiff as it comes, head butts and kicks that make you wince in
an almost shoot style atmosphere which is Kana's preference.
They look like they are thoroughly enjoying themselves as they
stiff each other with gay abandon and stand there like the rock
of Gibraltar. There is an athletic realism to this match you
just don't get in any of the mainstream promotions for women. In
fact you don't get it in some of mainstream promotions for men.
One match like this would put Magnus ovewr the top in terms of
credibility but sadly TNA does not have the time nor inclination
to let these things happen.
[Barbed Wire Board Death Match]Ryuji Ito(BJW), Kankuro
Hoshino(BJW) & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs Jun Kasai(BJW), "Black Angel"
Jaki Numazawa(BJW) & Aja Kong
The Barbwire Boards come out for the next match. Of course Aja
Kong and Tsubasa Kuragaki are the main attractions, the boys are
along for the ride. Aja Kong has been a main event draw for Oz
Academy since its inception. Tsubasa Kuragaki is perhaps the
strongest female wrestler I have ever seen. I have seen her
torture rack two men on tour with Chikara, and their strength
and toughness feud had to wind up in something like this just
because, well its Oz Academy and that's what Oz Academy do well;
street fights and death matches. Ryuji and Hoshino do well as
the “youngsters” supporting their younger colleague. Numazawa
and Kasai are the legends supporting the veteran. A technical
piece of beauty it is not, which is funny because all six of
these wrestlers are picture perfect mat workers, you don't get
anywhere in Japan without being able to work. It is in general
pretty brutal to watch, but it is thrillingly entertaining match
up. I have this year been put off gimmick matches, purely
because TNA has done so many, with little meaning or value. This
and the other matches on the card are balanced by great
wrestling and I thoroughly got into this match.
Sonoko Kato vs Meiko Satomura
If you have read any of my columns and posts on this site over
the last year you will know I am somewhat biased to the lady in
red in my ID pic. As I believe she, Meiko Satomura, is the very
best wrestler in the world today. Kato is another pure wrestling
genius who grew up in the same promotion, GAEA, as Satomura.
They wrestled each other numerous times there as the promo video
for this match shows. However Kato was sidelined and retired
with injuries and took five years away from the sport. She
returned to Oz Academy in 2005, and she has had an incredible
second spurt to her career. This match was well worth the wait.
Both on top form and coming into the bout with high expectations
they deliver. A thoroughly enjoyable high stakes outing that
highlights both women marvelously.
[Hair vs. Hair Match]Mayumi Ozaki vs Chikayo Nagashima
And now we get to the nitty gritty folks. As explained Ozaki is
the lead heel, her Seikigun outfit have been trying to take over
Oz Academy (in the storyline) since the beginning of the
promotion. Nagashima, another GAEA veteran has had an on and off
storyline relationship with Ozaki since 2000. She was member of
Seikigun in GAEA, then eventually returned to the face fold.
Last year upon winning the Wizard of Oz Title, cracks began to
appear in her face façade and she joined Seikigun with Ozaki
announcing that she would only defend against her stable mates
shutting out most of the roster. Originally reluctant to break
rules she embraced the dark side as her grip on the title began
to slip. She lost the title after a year and three defences and
finally fell foul of Ozaki. The result became this ultimate
match up with Ozaki and Mika Nishio's (Seikigun's manager) hair
vs Nagashima's hair. The biggest match in Joshi. With this
being a no DQ match it meant that Ozaki's stable helpers Nishio
and Police can join in the fun with Hikaru Shida keeping a
watchful on eye on things. If you liked those big Dudley Boys
Sandman Dreamer matches of the late 90's you will love this.
[OZ Academy Tag Team Title match]: Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tomoka
Nakagawa (c) vs Yumi Ohka & Mio Shirai
Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tomoka Nakagawa have a had a cracking reign
as champions. Yumi Ohka & Mio Shirai are the perfect heel foils
for them. All four are very talented workers, Hiroyo Matsumoto &
Tomoka Nakagawa are pure white meat baby faces in the old school
Joshi mould with a lot of fire and ability. The Seikigun pair of
Ohka and Shirai are overt pure heels, Shirai especially is a
gifted mic worker (no I don't speak Japanese, but when you can
tell by someone's body language what they are saying that is
impressive). This is one of the best tag matches I saw all of
last year and is a throw back to the days of All Japan Women in
the mid nineties which was the home of premier tag team
wrestling.
[THE WIZARD OF OZ~ OZ Academy Openweight Titlematch ] AKINO (c)
vs Ayako Hamada
Akino and Hamada, perhaps the longest running active feud in
Joshi. On and off for 12 years in several different promotions
around the world. When they started out Hamada had the upper
hand. As rookies they battled over the Queen of Arsion Titles
which I documented here;
HTML http://www.tnafanforum.com/sheriff-lonestar's-ppv-of-the-week/sheriff-lonestar's-ppv-if-the-week-knockout-or-wrestler/
Now it is Akino in the driving seat as The Wizard of Oz. This
was everything you should expect from a Joshi match of this
magnitude and on this size of a card. It is hard to finish any
Joshi show, but this one especially so after so much had
happened and the fans had so much to digest. Hamada is a lot
heavier now than in her younger days when she first battled
Akino, Akino has pretty much kept the same physique. With her
size though Hamada has added power and brawling ability to an
already impressive technical and aerial attack. Akino to has
improved in her story telling giving this a main event pace
which patiently tells a tale. This match is absolutely solid,
not as physically impressive as their earlier outings, but then
they are 12 years older. However the pacing of the match, much
like Daniel Bryan and CM Punk in WWE, when they briefly feuded
last year, which may not have been as physically mind blowing
but was much more dramatic.
This is a two video story so enjoy the first one and enjoy the
second they are both doozies.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU7yfdzdQq8
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbHBdOwblf0
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