Joshi's Valley

OZ Academy, for me, always seems a little under the radar for joshi promotions. You often hear a lot of love thrown to Ice Ribbon and SEAdLINNNG mainly outside of Stardom, but OZ Academy generally has a lot of good, solid matches and their first show of the new year has a stacked roster. The show starts with Hikaru Shida and Aja Kong’s match being awarded the Best Bout of last year, and Shida getting the ‘Best Wizard’ award which I assume is MVP, but seriously Best Wizard is much cooler.

Mayumi Ozaki vs Tsubasa Kurigaki: Mayumi Ozaki is a total badass, even though her whole act with Ozaki-gun is ruined by that POLICE idiot. Oh he does my brain in. Anyway. He immediately ruins Kurigaki’s entrance and beats her repeatedly with chairs, chains and the whole ‘match’ descends into Ozaki-gun just beating Tsubasa with chairs while the referee watches. Ozaki wins with a cradle. 1/2*

Yoshiko vs Yumiko Hotta: Now this should be more like it. Both are big, powerful and yet capable of a lot more than you might think. It’s almost a dirty secret of joshi now how good Yoshiko is, considering her past troubles. Hotta, at 52 years old, is the oldest on the show but doesn’t feel out of place at all.

Yoshiko doesn’t show Hotta any respect, and her strikes and the corner facewash are particularly stiff looking. This is much more of a hoss brawl than a more typical match, and Hotta makes sure to introduce Yoshiko to as many chairs as possible. She also reverses a Death Valley bomb into an armbar most expertly. Unfortunately the match ends in a time limit draw before we get a winner, as it looked like it could be building to something pretty good. ***

Sonoko Kato & Ryo Mizunami vs Hikaru Shida & Rina Yamashita: Now this match has more than enough talent in it to be great. Rina and Hikaru don’t seem to be quite on the same page as a team, but this should be a lot of fun.

Yeah, Shida and Yamashita are really struggling to work together, including a hilarious bit involving Rina throwing the kendo stick at Hikaru and almost allowing a tag on the other side. Mizunami brims with energy and charisma, and I think now with her tag team partner Ohata retired, maybe she’ll get more time to shine. Her and Rina crashing big stiff lariats on eath other was great, and she works well with Kato who I have no experience with but I like what she brings to the table. A very even match, with Shida and Rina losing after Sonoko pins Rina. Lots of good spots, the odd dose of comedy and plenty of fire. ***1/2

Sakura Hirota vs Tae Honma: Sakura Hirota is mental, and you never know what is going to happen in her matches. Tae Honma is a gem, totally underrated and one of my favourite discoveries of the last year in joshi.

Sakura’s opening promo seemed to be threatening to punch Tae in the asshole. I think. Seriously, I really don’t get her at all. Her little rope bounce trick was cool though, and her missing the topes is pretty funny actually. Tae does most of the actual wrestling work here, and Hirota wasn’t anywhere near as annoying as I’ve found her in the past. She nails Tae with the big asshole punch, then escapes an armbar attempt to then just fall on a running Honma and get the three count. Gentleman’s **1/2

Beast Friends vs Ozaki-gun: Only a fool would bet against this match being great, but with Ozaki-gun involved, you can always be wrong. Aja Kong has a badass robe, Yumi Ohka has the best big boot in joshi, Anou and Yuhiki are awesome, Yoneyama and Hiroyo are awesome, this should be totally magic.

You get the usual Yoneyama comedy spots, the usual Ozaki-gun crowd brawling spots, and I love how Maya is a totally different heel bitch here from her usual ‘ACE’ style character in Ice Ribbon. Poor Yoneyama takes a lot of abuse, even from Ozaki herself at ringside, but there’s no POLICE nonsense, which shows how they don’t need that idiot to be a great heel unit. Whne Matsumoto finally gets in, Saori Anou clocks her with a beautiful enziguri and tags in Ohka, who has a really good couple of minutes before there’s more interference from Ozaki again.

I do like OZ Academy, but this constant Ozaki-gun shenanigans can get a little tiresome, especially when the referees show no attempt to stop it.. There’s a number of good spots coming fast, like Hiroyo powerbombing Kaori while she superplexes Maya, a funny skit involving Aja’s metal box and Kaori’s always impressive top rope senton, before Aja crushes Maya with a top rope back elbow drop for the win. ***3/4

Final thoughts: A fun show if you removes the Ozaki-gun bullshit at the start, and there is nothing that you won’t enjoy. The main event underdelivered a little I feel, but a good show.

My first Ice Ribbon of 2019, and it is a blessed time to be back with Ai Hara on commentary again, this time joined by Giulia. Yokohama Ribbon looks like it has a few fun matches here, including a mother-daughter match which is cool. Ice Ribbon tends to delivers solid matches, so I’m sure this show will be enjoyable.

Hiragi Kurumi, Miyako Matsumoto & Satsuki Totoro vs Asahi, Motoko & Tsukasa Fujimoto: Queen Tsukka gets to babysit the talented Asahi here, and along with Matoko should be a good team. The other side has some great talent too, so this should be fun.

Asahi needs a little help on the rising kickout, but this seems to be designed around her getting some rub here. She starts off in high gear, and looks great for her level of in ring experience. She gets a lot of chance to sell as well, being contorted, stood on and slammed all match. Makoto also impressed me, she has a mighty stiff big boot on her. Fujimoto spent a lot of time kicking people, and most of this was a bit of a clusterfuck. They tried in vain to get Asahi the pin, but unfortunately she bit the dust with an assisted top rope senton from Totoro. Highlight of the match was Ai and Giulia almost exploding on commentary when they thought Asahi was going to pin Miyako. **

Risa Sera vs Maria: Poor Maria, another Marvelous rookie being sent to their doom against the Blast Queen. Ai and Giulia are getting their snacks out now, it bodes well for this. Sera isn’t dressed for hardcore, so we’re not getting the carnage we’ve experienced before, although she doesn’t look happy that all the girls ringside are supporting Maria.

Risa puts a beating on Maria, dragging her around outside the ring, slapping on a Giant Swing, smashing her with forearms and generally being a major heel. She’s fantastic. Ai pops hard for every near fall Maria gets, but Risa puts her away with a rebounding knee drop from the second rope. Good fight from the rookie but she’s dominated by Sera. ***

Command Bolshoi & Mochi Miyagi vs Akane Fujita & Matsuya Uno: Command Bolshoi’s nunchuk entrance is really cool, but it takes foreeeeeeeever. Uno and Fujita argued about who was going to start, and then Uno and Bolshoi had a super smooth sequence of reversals and holds. Bolshoi can be awesome. Then we get the ‘hoss’ battle of Fujita and Miyagi, involving a lot of shoulder blocks and a loud slap to Fujita’s back. Ouch. One thing you don’t see a lot of in joshi is big strong girls doing big strong things. Akane and Mochi gives you a bit of a taste of this.

The match is a little bit meh to be honest, but Command spinning into a triangle choke is just poetry, and she taps Matsuya out. **

Hamuko Hoshi vs Ibuki Hoshi: This is the third singles match between Ibuki and her mother, and Hamuko seems determined to give her a good schooling. Ibuki, along with Asahi, are two of the most fun rookies to watch in Ice Ribbon, and she’s a pretty big lass for a 15 year old. She puts some good weight behind those forearms, and a couple of times seems to have Hamuko pinned, but Hamuko hasn’t taught her every trick yet. Hamuko wins with a Samoan drop and a big splash from the top. Nothing overly standout, but Ibuki showed good heart and that’s what you want from these rookies. **

Giulia, Tequila Saya & Tsukushi vs Kyuri, Maika Ozaki & Maya Yukihi: Ok, so Kyuri and Ozaki’s team are really growing on me, and putting them in with probably the best wrestler in the promotion, our great champion and leader Maya, is a good thing. Giulia and Saya are just now starting to form a tag team, and Tsukushi is disgustingly talented for one so young. This is going to be lots of fun.

Maika is deceptively strong, and has a good few moments of tossing Tsukushi in particular around. If you haven’t seen the Tsukushi vs Kyuri match from last October, go and find it now. It’s on Youtube and gives you all the stiff shots you need. Tsukushi is great in this match, starting something with Yukihi with a brutal low dropkick to the face, and hopefully this is going to be a programme for the rest of this year. Maya is so good, and hits the smoothest backbreaker you’ll ever see.

This is a very high paced match, with a lot of action on both sides. Tequila Saya eventually pins Kyuri with her new finisher, the Tequila Shot, after Giulia hits a massive missile dropkick and that should set up a tag team title shot soon. It looks like everyone wants a shot at Maya’s title after this match too. ***1/2

VERDICT: Not the greatest in ring show from Ice Ribbon, but the main event was great fun and non stop. Other than that, it seems that the OTHER show on Jan 5th had a lot more going on. That’s next up on my list!

The consistently best all round in ring joshi promotion in Japan, SEAdLINNNG’s Sparkring, Sparkling, Sparking (seriously, I don’t know which it is) D show from December 13th contains one absolute barnburner and a number of good matches. Also, hooray for yet more joshis commentating while eating sweets. Ayame and Arisa are great! Although, as much as I applaud their dedication to commentate for two plus hours with their belts around them, it’s a bit of a spoiler…

Tae Honma vs Mei Hoshizuki We seem to be getting a lot of these Marvelous rookies appearing on shows at the moment, and I’m also getting to see a whole lot of these Actwres girl’Z too. Mei has loads of fire although her endless dropkick spot went on slightly too long, and I really like Tae Honma. A fun opener that does everything you’d want of this kind of match, Honma winning with a body warping Regal Stretch style submission. ***

ASUKA vs Chikayo Nagashima vs Hikaru Shimizu: This is my first experience of a high speed match, so bear with me on this. I’m learning as I go along. It’s also my first experience with the vaunted ASUKA too. What an incredible athlete she is, although I don’t understand why she’s decided to have a go with the ref. I guess you can only go for a pin if you’re moving at high speed, and the pinfall is counted faster? The three work well together, with Chikayo working the wily veteran, Shimizu being the fiery babyface and ASUKA being the dick heel. She’s like if Kota Ibushi and Taichi had a kid, all crazy moves and terrible attitude. I’m really impressed with her athleticism, and she wins with a Lionsault. ***

NEW-TRA (Rin Kadokura & Takumi Iroha) vs Himeki Arita & Miyuki Takase: This is Marvelous vs Actwres girl’Z in a SEAdLINNNG ring. Joshi is a wonderful thing. Takumi Iroha is second only to Hiroshi Tanahashi as the best hair in wrestling. I don’t know a lot of Marvelous other than Mio, and very little of Actwres girl’Z either so I’m looking forward to learning here.

Miyuki is a really good fight from underneath style babyface, while Iroha and Himeki are the big, powerful athletes. That common ‘dropkick on the bottom rope’ spot that everyone in joshi does never looks so good as when Rin Kadokura does it. In fact, most of her big hits look really legit. Himeki towers above her partner, and she and Iroha have a couple of big power trade offs that looks great. I like Himeki’s slightly maddening look, she doesn’t come across as your typical joshi. The Marvelous girls win after Iroha hits a beautiful Swanton on Arita. Another fun match ***1/2

Avid Rival (Misaki Ohata & Ryo Mizunami) vs Sae and Nanae Takahashi: Your SEAdLINNNG champion Nanae is teaming with Sae here against Avid Rival as part of Misaki Ohata’s retirement run. I don’t know Sae at all but the other three are all great so this should be a lot of fun. Quick question though, is Nanae’s belt almost comically too big for her?

There’s immediately outside brawling, including Ryo wailing on Nanae with the ring bell hammer. When we get back in, the double leg drop spot from Avid Rival is cool, and then Ryo turns Nanae’s chest red with so so so many chops. She then tries some dancing thing that backfires, and we get the highlight of the night, Nanae leading the crowd in a We Will Rock You chant before cracking Ryo with a big lariat. I couldn’t be more upset that only in her retirement year did I discover Misaki Ohata, because she’s fucking great. She busts out some nice suplexes, and when she gets those boots up to stop Nanae’s top rope splash, man does it look like it hurts a lot! Ohata and Mizunami work really well as a team, and their double teams are cool as well. I could also really get behind a Takahashi vs Mizunami one on one down the line too.

We don’t get to see a huge amount of Sae in this match, but she seems like a decent wrestler, and she gets absolutely murdered on that lariat/German suplex combo. Urgh, lucky Nanae saved her there. She takes a 3D for her trouble, then Mizunami batters Sae with another big lariat and gets the three. Solid tag match with some cool moments ***1/2

Arisa Nakajima & Ayame Sasamura vs BORDERLESS (Rina Yamashita & Yoshiko): BORDERLESS are an awesome team, and are consistently having great matches too. The team of Murder Face Nakajima and Cutest Face Sasamura seems like an odd pairing but what a team they turn out to be.

The early face off between Yoshiko and Arisa is electric, fast paced and instantly creates a bit of competition between them. Yoshiko looks like she’s been learning some tips from Zack Sabre Jr or Marty Scurll, bending and contorting poor Ayame’s fingers like that. Sasamura takes a bit of a beating from Yoshiko, again proving why she’s possibly the best heel in joshi. Ayame manages to hit a big scoop slam on her and makes the hot tag to Arisa, who celebrates a little too early after a slingblade and allows BORDERLESS back into the match. She takes them outside and drops a big top rope crossbody onto the pair, and then Sasamura does the same, landing hard.

Nakajima goes for Yoshiko’s leg, locking in a nasty looking calf killer but she escapes to the ropes. Yoshiko then gives Arisa some brutal looking kicks, and locks in an octopus hold which is countered into a DDT when Yoshiko goes for a pumphandle slam. Sasamura is tagged in but gets stuck in a Kimura. Yoshiko has got to be one of the best big bully heels in all of wrestling. Nakajima and Sasamura get the advantage however, and work well with some good double teams in the corner and Arisa hits a beauty of a German on Yamashita for a two. Nakajima drops Yoshiko with a DDT from the top to the apron, and then Sasamura AND Arisa hit double foot stomps from the top. The strike battle between Arisa and Rina is nasty too, and Arisa gets the upper hand with a snap German. This is really stepping up a gear now. The sequence of roll through, caught on a stomp, assisted Codebreaker and then back suplex was awesome and all the evidence you need to really mark BORDERLESS as a top tier team.

Nakajima escapes a splash mountain, and then ducks as Yoshiko clotheslines Rina hard. Rina kicks out of the straitjacket German, and lariats Sasamura out of her boots. Then clotheslines Yoshiko and tries to powerbomb her onto Nakajima. Problems in BORDERLESS? Rina eventually goes down to a half and half German Dragon suplex after Yoshiko sentons from the top on her by accident. What a great fun match this was. Rina and Yoshiko cut promos on each other after the match, and it doesn’t look good for the future of that team. Sasamura and Nakajima celebrating after the others leave the ring was fun, and they are your new Beyond the Sea tag team champions! ****

VERDICT: Good show top to bottom, with the main event delivering and everything else being decent to good. A lot of wrestlers I didn’t know but I’ve definitely got some new ones to watch out for too.

This is my first ever PURE-J show, so I apologise in advance for my lack of knowledge of stories or some of the wrestlers. It’s a promotion I’ve meant to check out in the past, so I thought I would give it a go. I recognise some of the wrestlers, and I know that the main event is bound to be good since it has one of my top Joshi of 2018 in it.

Emi Sakura vs Mari Manji: Emi goes to shake Mari’s hand and immediately gets trapped in a hold. When will wrestlers learn? Sakura is the first of two joshi legends on this show, and this is a pretty decent, basic match, There’s a lot of submission attempts, and Sakura wins with a la Magistral pin. **1/2

Tae Honma & Yako Fujigasaki vs Hana Kimura & Hikaru Shimizu: Shimizu is a very happy wrestler, judging by her total idol entrance. Hana is here which is awesome but she doesn’t do much, and Fujigasaki is totally unknown to me. I caught Honma on RibbonMania but she was in an 8 man tag so she didn’t stand out too much. Fujigasaki obviously doesn’t care for teaming with Honma, kicking her in the gut before the match even starts. There’s even a triple team on Fujigasaki at one point too, but Honma goes back to being her team mate after that. It’s a pretty standard tag match, with a number of cool spots. Hana trapping both opponents in a octopus/dragon sleeper combo looks great, Shimizu stomping on the wrung arm from the top, and Yako getting huge height on a German suplex to Shimizu that almost wins her the match. Fujigasaki follows that with a Tiger Suplex that she barely holds onto, getting the pin on Shimizu. **1/2

Leon vs Moeka Haruhi: This is more like it. I have no experience with these two, but their high speed, energetic match is much more my style after the last two. Leon reversing the hurricanrana into the backbreaker was nice, and two diving spears into the corner looked good too. Haruhi traps the arm over the top rope but Leon pulls her into a fireman’s carry, which she also escapes but runs into a perfect tilt a whirl backbreaker. Leon misses a big splash from the top however, and Haruhi come back with a hammerlock Nothern Lights suplex, and floats over into a submission.

Leon reaches the ropes and then takes two big double foot stomps from the top but Moeka can’t put her away. Leon gives her a big spinning slam, and then hits the frog splash for a two. They exchange pinfall attempts, before Leon hits three big spin kicks, then a spear to win. A great little match. ***1/4

KAZUKI & Rydeen Hagane (WANTED) vs Manami Katsu & SAKI: Now this is a match of four people I have never seen before, so it’ll be fun. This is a two out of three falls match for the Daily Sports Tag Team title number one contenders. SAKI has a really cool entrance outfit, and KAZUKI has got that YOSHI HASHI hairdo spot on. Katsu doesn’t get the hand shake so I’m going with Hagane and KAZUKI as the heels here.

Katsu and SAKI dominate the start of proceedings until they miss stereo Vader bombs and the WANTED team take over. The backbreaker into a knee to the head double team is nice, but they lose the first fall after Hagane accidentally clotheslines KAZUKI, and SAKI big boots her for a one two three. They take the advantage for the second fall, as Hagane gives SAKI a lot of shortarm clotheslines, and despite suffering a big vertical suplex, she hits a hard lariat for the pin on SAKI. One each now.

Manami Katsu gives as good as she gets in these big hoss clothesline battles, and her and SAKI have a nice run of stereo boots to the head, face crushers and then the double Vader bomb spot. No fall there, but she does then proceed to kick KAZUKI in the head repeatedly. I like Manami Katsu here, she’s tough and quick and her moveset is good. She drops a big elbow, then goes back up top only to be superplexed by Hagane and then TKOed by KAZUKI. She kicks out but the end looks to be near. Katsu survives the assisted Knee Drop thanks to SAKI but can’t escape a beautiful moonsault from Hagane and then a diving double knee from KAZUKI. One two three. Decent match but a bit sloppy in parts, and SAKI and Hagane seemed to spend a lot just stalling while the other two fought. ***

Command Bolshoi & Jaguar Yokota vs Kaori Yoneyama & Tsubasa Kurigaki: It both astounds and confounds me that Jaguar Yokota is still performing at 57 years old. The Godmother of Joshi is an icon, but her partner and promotion owner Command Bolshoi has a good reputation too. I love Yoneyama, and I’ve seen Kurigaki a few times last year, normally tagging with Yumiko Hotta.

The interactions between the big powerful Kurigaki and the high flying Command Bolshoi are great, including a shoulder twisting reversal of the test of strength, and Bolshoi tightrope walking into an armdrag. The simple fact that Jaguar can keep up with these guys and not look out of place is amazing. Sure, she’s not as lightning fast as she used to be but her stuff is all solid and to be fair, she’s not in there with Mayu and Io is she? Bolshoi tries to escape a Torture Rack twice, but Kurigaki rolls her back up in a good spot, then suffers a DDT for her troubles. She tags out and Yoneyama and Bolshoi get into a strike battle, which leads to Kurigaki saving Kaori from a superplex by racking both Bolshoi and Jaguar. That’s power.

Bolshoi kicks out of two top rope splashes, but Jaguar has to save her from the Yoneyama senton. Jaguar knocks Kaori into the ropes, Bolshoi hits a Tiger Feint Kick, and then La Mistica armbar to win. Good solid match considering the 111 years of experience in the ring. ***

Hanako Nakamori vs Arisa Nakajima: Anything that has the queen of the death stare Arisa Nakajima in it has my attention immediately. I don’t know Nakamori at all, but the fact that she refused the hand and booted Arisa right in the head as a start to this match means I’m all in on her so far!

She gets a pretty hot start, and then they go do some outside brawling, and when we get back in the ring Arisa has taken advantage. She grins while wrenching on Hanaki’s arm which is just evil. They do the old ‘who can kick each other harder’ spot, then Arisa pulls out the smoothest cradle into a stretch muffler you’ll ever see. Damn she is good. Nakajima continues to work on the leg, while Nakamori has been aiming for the arm. Nakamori comes off the top and misses, sells the knee and Nakajima goes for a suplex. There’s a frantic slap battle which Hanako wins, but then immediately takes a stiff forearm and a German suplex.

Nakamori comes back with a big roundhouse kick and then goes to the top and hits the Destiny Hammer, followed by a fisherman buster for a two count. Arisa hits a Dragon suplex and manages to hook Hanako in a brutal looking knee lock. Hanako escapes barely, but then suffers multiple Germans for a close two. Arisa hits a top rope stomp but the knees are up for the top rope moonsault. Hanako is hurting though, and Arisa’s forearms are beating her down. There’s a flash of hope on a Fisherman driver, but Arisa rolls through the pin and stomps on her gut. Nakajima tries every suplex she can think of, but Hanako breaks free from a half and half and drops her with that fisherman driver. Jeez that was a close two, I thought that was it. It’s followed with a half nelson blue thunder bomb and Nakamori retains. Hell of a fight. ****

FINAL THOUGHTS: Not a bad show, with one killer match and a couple of decent ones. The main event is a must watch, and my wrestlers to watch out for now are Hanako Nakamori and Manami Katsu. I’ll definitely come back to more PURE-J, depending on the main events in the future.