OZ Academy - Connect To The Future 02/12/2018

Ayame Sasamura vs Maya Yukihi

Clipped match, with Yukihi looking really good. Really liked her rolling through into a headscissors and using an actual whip to hit Sasamura in the corner, which looked nasty. Yukihi halts a comeback by hiding behind the ref and sneakily gets a roll up for two. Yukihi hits a roundhouse kick to the head for three.

Misaki Ohata & Natsumi Maki vs Tsubasa Kuragaki & Yumiko Hotta

Kuragaki and Hotta have a reasonable size advantage, so Ohata and Maki decide to attack at the bell, culminating with Maki hitting a big crossbody to the floor. They try to keep up the speed advantage before a Maki top rope splash on Kuragaki hits feet. Love Hotta showing off a bit of raw power, hoisting the other two to the top rope and locking in a double torture match. Kuragaki picks up the win with a cross-arm powerbomb on Maki. This is again clipped, but seemed good.

Aja Kong vs Sakura Hirota

This is basically all comedy, with Hirota starting off by giving Kong a present of a signed photo. Hirota kisses Kong and for some reason dances with a bin on her head. Kong hits a backfist and gets the three.

Mission K4 (AKINO & Sonoko Kato) & Ryo Mizunami vs Ozaki-Gun (Mayumi Ozaki, Saori Anou & Yumi Ohka)

The first full match on the show, and this is really good. Ozaki-Gun have a male guard at ringside, and he attacks Mizunami before her partners get to the ring. This kicks off a big arena-wide brawl. There’s a lot of momentum swings in the match, with neither side really getting a sustained advantage. Nice spot with AKINO going to the top, getting the ropes shaken by the bodyguard and Anou getting to hit a really nice top rope rana. Anou tries a backslide on Mizunami, rolling over into a cradle, which looked really good. There’s a longish sequence of no-selling between Ohka and Mizunami which is a bit off, but there’s a lot of action crammed into this. Kato looks to have this won with a sort-of musclebuster piledriver, but the bodyguard breaks the count. Obviously there are no disqualifications as not only does the bout continue, but we get some whips involved as weapons. Kato looks to gain an advantage by using Ozaki as a shield from the whips, but all three members of Ozaki-Gun mist their opponents, and Ozaki hits a big kick on Kato for the win.

Beast Friend (Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kaori Yoneyama) vs Borderless (Rina Yamashita & Yoshiko)

This is for the tag titles, held by Yamashita and Yoshiko. Really fun dynamic between Matsumoto and Yoneyama, with Matsumoto seemingly keen to use her partner as a weapon. In the early stages, Yoneyama seems pretty resistant to Matsumoto’s idea of using her as a missile to drop onto their opponents at ringside. Shortly after, she tries a crossbody to the floor and accidently only takes out her partner. This leaves her isolated, and Yamashita and Yoshiko take full advantage. Big double facewash in the corner, then Yoshiko downs her with a big flurry of blows capped off with a massive senton. Loved the spot with Yamashita spinning Yoneyama with a giant swing, with Yoshiko skipping over her, then deciding to hit a big stomp on the third rotation. This especially works because Yoneyama is a very sympathetic character. Eventually she gets a springboard armdrag to take both out and makes the hot tag. Matsumoto runs riot, and I loved her stacking the two opponents in the corner, with Yamashita placed horizontally between the ropes to lock Yoshiko in place. Things break down with all four involved, and Yoshiko takes a looooong run up to hit a senton on both opponents on the floor, with Yamashita holding them in place until the last second. There’s a really neat twist on the tower of doom spot, as Yoneyama is struggling to hit a superplex on Yoshiko until Matsumoto helps by powerbombing her down, bringing Yoshiko with her. Yoneyama returns the favour, powerbombing Matsumoto onto Yamashita, and the match finishes with Matsumoto clotheslining her partner into a Code Red for the titles. Really great stuff.

Hikaru Shida vs Kakeru Sekiguchi

Shida is the champion, and a bit taller than Sekiguchi, and so Sekiguchi is portrayed as the underdog. However, this is done by Shida no-selling most of her offence, shaking off a series of dropkicks and not reacting to her forearms. It’s strange, because Shida isn’t THAT much bigger than Sekiguchi, certainly not big enough to no-sell dropkicks. Shida controls the match, working Sekiguchi on the mat and dominating when both are on their feet. Shida works over the back, hitting a pair of big backbreakers and sinking in a deep Boston Crab. Sekiguchi manages to hit a crossbody and begins to build some momentum. Two missile dropkicks stagger Shida, meaning some running dropkicks are now able to down her. However, a big knee to the face from Shida puts her down for nearly a 10 count. Shida starts taking her lightly, hitting some patronising slaps, only for Sekiguchi to down her with an armbar. She maintains this arm focus, smashing it around the ringpost. I liked Sekiguchi trying for pinfalls and grabbing the arm every time Shida lifting a shoulder to break the fall. Sekiguchi keeps going for pins, but one more big knee to the face takes her last bit of fight away, and a Falcon Arrow gives Shida the win. This was neat, told a fun story and, though the execution was a bit odd, this was largely enjoyable.

Stardom 18/01/2015

Right, I've had this show sat around for a while waiting to be watched, but hadn't gotten round to it. As I've stated before, I've very little experience of Joshi, and despite enjoying some of the bits I'd seen, I'm not totally sure where to begin. However, given that I've bought tickets to the BEW/Stardom show in London this weekend, I figured that watching this would at least give me a headstart on what to look forward to.

Hatsuhinode Kamen vs Momo Watanabe

This is basically clipped to the finish, with the only Watanabe offence we see being a roll up. Kamen hits a suplex and cradle pin for the win

Hudson Envy, Kris Wolf & Kyoko Kimura vs Act Yasukawa, Dragonita & Heidi Lovelace

There seems to be some ongoing issue between Kimura and Yauskawa, and despite her teammates trying to hold her back, Act rushes the opposing corner to start, predictably getting beaten up and some beer poured over her. I don’t recall seeing much of Dragonita in this match, with Lovelace working the vast majority of it for her team, and she looks terrific throughout. I loved how the animosity between Yasukawa and Kimura meant that Kimura let her attention slip from Lovelace in the ring to have a strike exchange with Act on the ring apron, which allowed Lovelace to take control by attacking from behind. Lovelace hits a great looking STO. Wolf I found a bit irritating, but I loved her selling of a Rings of Saturn by Lovelace as, after Kimura rescues her, she continues to favour her left arm, even when clapping along with a delayed suplex. Lovelace gets worked over from that point on, and Envy hits a Celtic Cross for the win. After the bout, the 6 women seem to put their differences aside and look to be joining together.

Koguma & Reo Hazuki vs Risa Sera & Takumi Iroha

The team of Sera and Iroha have a bit of height on their opponents which they use to their advantage in this match, with both using their longer legs for a lot of leg-based offence. Dug the opening cat-and-mouse work between Koguma and Iroha, especially as Iroha cuts it off viciously with a nasty looking foot stomp. When Koguma is on offence, she’s pretty fun, following every bit of offence with this kind of excited hop, like she didn’t think she could pull the move off. Sera has a load of knee based offence that looks really good, loved her vicious running kneedrops to the back. Unfortunately, the ref is really poor here and hurts the match a bit, with his delayed count between 2 and 3 telegraphing the kickouts. There’s a lot of nearfalls you don’t buy because of it. Koguma reverses a suplex by Iroha into a reverse naked choke and, even though Iroha doesn’t tap, she’s so out of it that Koguma and Hazuki are able to control her for a good portion of time. When Sera does get the tag, they also double team her for a long period, until Sera fights back with more nice knee based offence. Sera hits a big top rope knee drop on Hazuki for the win.

Io Shirai vs Kaori Yoneyama

Yoneyama is quite squat and stocky compared to Shirai, so I was a bit surprised at how fluidly she moved throughout this match, especially at the start when they exchanged a really quick series of pin attempts. Shirai hits a pair of lovely topes just before a quick clip. When we come back, Shirai looks to be about to hit a one-person Spanish Fly, but Yoneyama wisely drops down, causing Shirai to fly to the mat in place for Yoneyama to hit a massive top rope senton for two. What I loved was the real sense of fight in this match – Yoneyama really feels like she’s trying everything to win here, and there’s a lovely battle for a top rope powerbomb, Shirai holding onto the turnbuckles for all she’s worth before viciously kneeing Yoneyama in the head to escape. Shirai is just that little to quick for Yoneyama, who gets caught climbing the ropes as Shirai hits the Spanish Fly to win. Really dug this.

Act Yasukawa vs Mayu Iwatani

This is for Iwatani’s Wonder of Stardom title. Yasukawa is accompanied by her new friends, which Iwatani also has an entourage on the outside, and this comes into play during the match. At first, Iwatani is in total control, wearing Yasukawa down with a series of stiff kicks. However, she tries to dropkick a down Yasukawa, who moves, causing Iwatani to get hung up on the bottom rope in a nasty looking bump. From this point, every time Iwatani tries to get back in control, Yasukawa’s entourage interfere to help her maintain control. At one point, it ends up 1 on 5 outside the ring. Yasukawa gets a Stretch Muffler inside the ring, before everything spills outside again and we get utter chaos as all parties get involved in a big brawl. Loved the dives by Iwatani from the top rope and again from the stage to take everyone out. Back inside, there’s a lovely moment where Iwatani kicks out of a rollup and Yasukawa transitions straight into another Stretch Muffler. Just when it looks like Iwatani is going to win, Kimura pelts her with a steel box, allowing Yasukawa to steal the win. Quite fun, albeit with a big case of smoke and mirrors to fill in the cracks. Yasukawa is a real charismatic presence, but doesn’t seem to be quite good enough in the ring yet.

Yoshiko vs Nanae Takahashi

This is for Yoshiko’s World of Stardom title. As soon as I saw Yoshiko, I knew I recognised her from somewhere, then remembered it was from a news story last year, where she’d assaulted another wrestler during a match, which had led to that wrestler needing surgery for fractured bones. Taking a look on t’internet, it turned out that the opponent was Yasukawa, who ended up retiring in December, so that was a slightly depressing thing to uncover going into this match.

Partly due to this, partly due to the full-body jumpsuit she wore and partly due to the vacant-but-dangerous look in her eye, this made Yoshiko remind me a bit of Nailz (albeit a vastly better wrestler). There was a lack of emotion on her face that gave off an aura of danger, and her size makes her look brutish. Takahashi’s plan therefore seems to be to outwrestle her, working over the arm of Yoshiko. Yoshiko’s raw power means that she’s able to turn the tide with one blow, but unlike someone like Brock Lesnar, she’s not portrayed as the smartest of wrestlers meaning her power advantage can be nullified. Here, it’s shown by her repeatedly clotheslining Takahashi with the bad arm, which she then sells the pain of, giving Takahashi time to recover. Both get nearfalls, with a hammerlock spinebuster and some sentons all getting two for Yoshiko, whilst Takahashi also gets some close two counts with a series of slams and suplexes. In the end, the overwhelming power of Yoshiko is too much, as she blasts Takahashi with a clothesline to pick up the win.