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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 25637--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; My Perfect Year
By: SheriffLonestar Date: April 12, 2014, 3:20 am
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This week's PPV of the week comes from World Wonder Ring
Stardom, their opening big televised show of the year on the
26th January 2014. It was the usual levels of Stardom fun and
frolics mixed in with some damn good wrestling. In fact a couple
of these matches take match of the year honours so far for me,
so well worth a watch. Let us start though at the beginning.
00:09:55Yuna Munase vs Koguma
The show begins with a nice montage putting together everyone in
the companies favourite moments. Stardom always seem to
introduce their wrestlers well and this is a nice promo package
that matches the mood of the show, which is; “get the younger
girls over”. The promo features a lot of the women from the
opening matches and it is nice to see them given equal wait to
the Nanae Takahashi, the President of the company and lead draw.
Like I said, this show was really about the rookies, and they
make a good account of themselves here. Munase is the one in the
blue with the top that seems to magically be supportive and show
as much under boob as possible. She is in fact the classic
Stardom prototype dojo wrestler, good looking, kick heavy and
stylish. She has clearly modelled herself on Kana, and that is
no bad role model to have. Stardom have been spending the good
part of a year trying to find a replacement for Yuzuki Aikawa
who retired in 2013 and Munase fits that mould perfectly; kick
heavy offence and good looks, though she doesn't have Aikawa's
presence yet. She is their second attempt to replace Aikawa
after Kairi Hojo and Natsumi Showzuki where their original girls
that they thought could fill that poster selling, good looking
female star spot. Unfortunately Showzuki suffered a cervical
spine injury in 2013 and had to retire, so the former gravure
model Munase has began to fill Aikawa's shoes. Koguma on the
other hand is the wonder kid. She is 15 years old. Yes 15 years
old. And in this one match shows more poise and development that
Garrett Bischoff did in his entire career. She is going to be
very good indeed. Though like most rookies in Japan she will be
staring at the lights for a good while yet, she got hammered by
Alpha Female last month after which Alpha said “don't worry I
didn't hurt her too much”, she has the full tool kit to be a
great Joshi and I look forward to watching her develop her in
ring skill.
00:19:36 Hiroyo Matsumoto, Manami Toyota & Mayu Iwatani vs Kaori
Yoneyama, Kellie Skater & Yuhi
So here is the thing; Hiroyo Matsumoto, Mayu Iwatani and Miho
Wakizawa are a team who have been chasing the Goddess of Stardom
Trios championship that they eventually removed from Monster
Gun; Amazon, Alpha Female and Kyoko Kimura. To make up for the
obvious size differential, they made a big deal of finding
themselves a foreign object to match their style and because
Wakizawa's gimmick is that she is just about plumb crazy, she
named the team Tawashi, or “Scrubbing Brush”. So at their title
challenge were they took on Monster Gun, there where scrubbing
brushes everywhere. With Tawashi a woman down, Miho Wakizawa is
challenging for the tag titles later on the card, they got
another AJW veteran to join them. Yes that is Manami Toyota, the
greatest wrestler of all time, trying not to laugh while taking
bumps on scrubbing brushes. This match is pure entertainment,
and it was nice to see in the opening vignette that the local
scrubbing brush company didn't miss a trick and opened up their
factory to the trio of Matsumoto, Iwatani and Wakizawa. I do
have to say it is nice to see Iwatani paired with Wakizawa and
Matsumoto, the two veterans have done a lot for the youngsters
poise and pacing and she is turning into a well rounded pro if
you forget the craziness she has flung herself head long into.
Teaming with Toyota can only improve that dynamic. Matsumoto is
just awesome as always, her work in Oz Academy as a heel and a
face has been breath taking and she has added to the craziness
in this team. On the other side of the fence is the incredibly
enthusiastic Kellie Skater, former JWP Openweight Champion Kaori
Yoneyama and the now sadly retired Yuhi. After two years in
which Yuhi went from the bottom to the very top, pinning three
senior veterans in last years Generation Battle for Sendai
Girls, she has decided to call it a day. This is a great example
of what could have been, her work with Skater is exceptional and
she spends a lot of her time making other people look great in
this match, but she was equally heroic making herself look good
in other matches. This is a wonderful slice of fun with the
Tawashi bumps being the main point of comedy. Though not a great
pure wrestling match, it does have some great high spots, and
look out for the double teaming Yuhi and Skater
00:27:10 Yoshiko vs. Takumi Iroha
Takumi Iroha is another rookie who did well at Generation
Battle, gaining a DQ victory over veteran slugger Dump Matsumoto
and then making a good showing of her self as she understandably
bled all over the ring after the match with Dump. Everyone
bleeds after a match with Dump, in some cases even the referee
bleeds.. Yoshiko has been tied up in the big Generation Battle
feud at the headline end of the card in her makeshift team of
necessity with Kagetsu as they tried and succeeded in against
the odds in their battle with Meiko Satomura and Nanae
Takahashi. It was now time to cash in some of that main event
rub on Iroha. They obviously see big things in Iroha, she has
talent but this was a nice outing for her. Yoshiko is her usual
dominant self, and that is no bad thing her size and how they
book is a lesson a lot of American companies should look at now
that bigger females are becoming more prevalent. I am looking at
you TNA and your treatment of Lei'D Tapa.
00:33:44 [Goddesses of Stardom Championship] Miho Wakizawa &
Nanae Takahashi © vs Kyoko Kimura & The Alpha Female
Now we are into the business end and this is quite a sight to
behold. The champions going into the match Wakizawa and
Takahashi brought some old school, putting a dance routine into
their ring introductions but its Alpha and Kimura who are the
stars here. They are dominant in the way Monster Gun have been
all year and Alpha if you read this, more dropping people on
their head please, my Dad really liked it. It is a really fun
match, but Wakizawa lays off the crazy long enough to make it a
more sporting contest. However it is inventive too with some
slick double team work, and tells a good story a thoroughly
entertaining bout that got the Kurokean faithful oohing and
ahhing along with the near falls towards the end. My favourite
tag match of the year by a long streak so far.
00:52:40 [Wonder of Stardom Championship] Act Yasukawa © vs.
Kairi Hojo
I am really starting to like Act Yasukawa, her initial forays
into the comedy, borderline alcoholic pirate who couldn't get
through a match without her hip flask has turned into a dead
serious character who has been putting on championship worthy
matches over the last year. Hojo is a fine foil for her and her
work has been great in the last twelve months as well. The
Wonder of Stardom title was first won by Yuzuki Aikawa and she
set the benchmark for title matches with this belt much in line
with its legacy sister championship, the All Japan Women's All
Pacific title. Act Yasukawa's swagger and confidence since she
took the title from Dark Angel Sarah Stock has improved and is
beginning to remind me in spots of Akira Hokuto's run with the
All Pacific Belt. She isn't at Hokuto's level yet, and to be
honest I doubt anyone will ever be at Hokuto's level of mental
and physical toughness, but she is well on her way to being a
well rounded and intimidating champion. She is also over like
rover and that can only be a good thing. More matches like this
and she will have sealed her own legacy without being in two
former great champions shadows.
01:21:05[World of Stardom Championship] Io Shirai © vs. Natsuki
Taiyo
What can you say about Io Shirai? She has just been outstanding
this year. Defeating Alpha Female for the belt in 2013 her
matches have been off the page good. A absolutely pure in ring
talent that you don't come across very often, totally fearless,
and incredibly hard working. Her matches with Nanae Takahashi,
Alpha and the young but equally talented JWP Openweight Champion
Arisa Nakajima have been off the page. Natsuki Taiyo is moving
towards her retirement, she will call it quits on June 1st, and
as she starts her retirement countdown this was a great way to
start that run with the hottest worker in the company for the
biggest belt. The World of Stardom title has becoming one of the
premier titles in joshi in a very short time. Nakajima and
Shirai set a Stardom Kurokean attendance record with their title
match in 2013, and that legacy is something the company will
find very useful in 2014 as it continues to build. The next big
challenge for Shirai is Alpha Female in a rematch from last year
on April 26th and I am waiting with baited breath for that
match, I have high expectations of both competitors and I am
looking forward to it, in the mean time there are few matches
this good anywhere in the world, this my friends is as good as
it gets. For those of you sick of 8 minute world title bouts
take a look at this and the other Stardom cards you can find on
Youtube. This is the most fun you will have in wrestling right
now.
Enjoy the show.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbyrpAiz364
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