TWF @twf87
This week has been dominated by the New Japan G1 Climax tournament, but since I’ll be posting my review tomorrow, and most likely everyone else will be talking about it, I’d rather focus on the live shows I went to over the long weekend in Japan last week.
Monday was a public holiday, so I spent the early afternoon at Stardom’s Korakuen Hall show, then the evening at the Sendai Girls show in Yokohama. Stardom runs shows at Korakuen every month, and the last time I was there was for Io Shirai’s final match, which was sold out and raucous. This week’s show drew a respectable 715 people to watch Momo Watanabe and Hazuki go to war over the Wonder of Stardom Championship. Momo won the belt from Io before she left, and has been touted as the Ace apparent – at 18 she is clearly highly rated within the company already. Hazuki and Momo were both members of the Queen’s Quest faction until a draft earlier this year saw Hazuki join Oedo Tai, and this history played into their title match, with Hazuki absolutely desperate to beat her former teammate. The match was fantastic to see live, and the crowd was very split between supporting the champion and her challenger. Momo and Hazuki put their bodies on the line for the belt, and Hazuki got a very close near fall with a roll up counter to Momo’s modified tequila sunrise finisher. Ultimately though, Momo retained her title after hitting Hazuki with two consecutive finishers. This match was a fantastic 18 minutes, and is already up on Stardom World.
The undercard of this show was mixed, but the highlight was definitely a six-man mixed tag match featuring Kagetsu and Natsu Sumire of Oedo Tai teaming with luchador El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. to take on Mayu Iwatani, Saki Kashima, and Rey Wagner (formerly known as Dr. Wagner Jr). This match was a lot of fun, and the Stardom wrestlers clearly enjoyed teaming with their luchador partners. The Korakuen crowd made it clear from their reception that they really enjoyed seeing the Mexican stars in this match as well. Mayu secured victory for her team with a Dragon Suplex on Natsu, then challenged Kagetsu for a shot at her World of Stardom Championship.
The evening Sendai Girls show was quite a different experience to the Stardom show – it was held at the Yokohama Radiant Hall, which has a capacity of closer to 300. Consequently the audience was much closer to the action, and several times we had to vacate our seats because they were being used as weapons by the wrestlers. The highlight of this show was seeing Hiroyo Matsumoto take on Cassandra Miyagi for her 12th Anniversary bout, which Lady Godzilla won to delight the crowd. The main event saw Meiko Satomura and Chihiro Hashimoto take on Marvelous’ Mio Momono and Nyla Rose in a great tag team match. It was the first time I’ve seen Satomura in person, and she was as impressive as I imagined. I was also very impressed by the Sendai Girls’ World Champion Hashimoto, who picked up the win for her team. Overall it was a great day of live wrestling, to start off a week of a lot of G1 watching. More on that tomorrow!
Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
It hasn’t been too difficult to note that a lot of my time with wrestling this week has been watching Riptide Wrestling shows in preparation for the Pride triple-header. Unfortunately, I will not be able to be there for the shows themselves, but I do believe that they will be well worth going to live or catching up on VOD depending on what fans are capable of doing. As I’ve been to most of the shows this year, but none beforehand, it has been great fun in particular seeing the evolution of the promotion in 2017 from the debut show to where I began to watch. In particular, the Spike Trivet and Jack Sexsmith feud has grown in my estimation as I’ve seen Trivet lose regularly, before buying his way to his first victory as Chris Ridgeway turned on Sexsmith. It was a great angle when I saw it live; even better having seen the lead up to it.
Continuing on the Riptide side of things, they placed the WALTER versus Mike Bailey match from their last show on Youtube for a short window of time, so I took the opportunity to watch a match that I had loved live. It didn’t disappoint. What worked so well is that WALTER is so often presented as a monster, that when Bailey had him on the ropes with his array of kicks, it felt huge. It was a performance that did as much for Bailey in losing as it did for WALTER in victory. Some of the spots were ridiculous; I talked to Bailey after the match and he had a welt on his forehead from a shooting star press that saw him chopped out of midair. A match I would really recommend people checking out.
News of the cancellation of some Riptide shows after the knock on effect of the weather that impacted their March show is worrying to hear, but I do hope that they are able to rise above these financial issues. Hopefully, the Pride shows will be a financial success, whilst the time spent away will get the money rolling in the right direction without the concerns of hiring a venue, paying performers, etc in the mean time. They’ve offered great wrestling to the south coast, so long may it continue.
Finally, the summer break in Germany is over; wXw is soon to return!
Laura Mauro @LauraNMauro
In a week almost exclusively eaten up by the G1, the rest of my wrestling week has, as usual, mostly involved NXT. I started the week with WWE’s Extreme Rules – having recently taken a break from WWE it was almost exciting to switch back on – though honestly, the PPV itself would best be described as ‘adequate’, with a handful of good matches – and a handful of abysmal ones – propped up by a pretty average card. Suffice to say, my hiatus is not yet over, not least because NJPW is doing great stuff with the G1 right now. But to NXT, the ‘other’ face of WWE, where things are still ticking along nicely; NXT’s women’s division is in much better health than that of the main roster, and it’s always a pleasure to see more than one women’s match per show – it lends credence to the concept of a ‘women’s evolution’, as opposed to the women’s division being an occasional novelty. But credit to the wrestlers too: Lacey Evans is a triumph, with her GLOW-esque character and in-ring work which seems to get better every time I see her. Dakota Kai is pretty much there as far as her ring work goes, and she seems to be getting more and more comfortable in front of the cameras – there’s a terrific babyface in there somewhere. As to the other match – a very good triple threat between Kairi Sane, Nikki Cross and Candice LeRae. I admit I’ve been so-so about Cross at times, perhaps a bit unconvinced by her wrestling ability, but she’s all about the character and she never disappoints in this regard. Candice continues to build her identity as a legitimate wrestler, not just Mrs Johnny Gargano – though the commentators still seem stuck on this fact. And Kairi is the full package – she’s head and shoulders above the rest of the division, and I think she’s the right choice to face Shayna in Brooklyn. I’m not really sure what they’re doing with Nikki Cross at this point – it feels like she’s had her opportunity and should be moving on from NXT now, not least since Sanity have made the jump.
Outside of the women’s division, Velveteen Dream continues to be the best thing about NXT, this week starring in a gloriously absurd vignette complete with soft-focus lighting and the whispered repetition of phrases chosen apparently at random (Philadelphia….) Keep him far, far away from the main roster, where he’ll probably be saddled with a comedy ‘gay hairdresser’ gimmick. And Kassius Ohno was…there, I suppose. I’m not sure what his 30 second squash was meant to accomplish, but it’s good to know he’s around.
