Month: January 2016

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Japan Reviews Wrestling

JWP 12/27/15 Live Thoughts

December 27, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan

My second (and final) JWP show of the trip was their annual year end show Climax. It was at Korakuen Hall (still surreal to me to actually be there) and seemed to draw a crowd similar in size to the Stardom event. The big lures of the card were Kayoko Haruyama’s retirement and a huge tag title match between the Jumonji Sisters (c) and Best Friends.

 

Ray came out at the beginning to announce she would not be competing on the show due to injury. Shame. She’s a great wrestler, and I hope she recovers soon. The show opened with a pair of decent matches in KAZUKI, Leon and Megumi Yabushita vs Rabbit Miyu, Raideen Hagane and Yako Fujigasaki and Hanako Nakamori vs Kyoko Kimura.

The matches relating to Kayoko Haruyama‘s retirement began as she and Tsubasa Kuragaki faced Command Bolshoi and Kaori Yoneyama. This was an intense, competitive tag match and a suitable penultimate appearance for Haruyama. I was extremely lucky to catch the last four matches of her career during my trip.

The Haruyama Battle Royal was a perfect balance of tribute, competetion, and comedy. All the competitors were dressed as Haruyama, and she’s had enough different looks over time that there was a lot of variety in the costumes. My favorite was worn by someone who is also one of my favorite wrestlers, Aoi Kizuki.

Everyone was clearly having a lot of fun and there were numerous clever spots that took advantage of both the format and the wrestler they were paying tribute to. Several dogpile pins and Misaki Ohata taking out a towel to make a soft landing for her attempt at Haruyama’s trademark legdrop were among the highlights. Rabbit Miu won with a fantastic counter or an attempted slingshot into the ring from the apron by Leon where Rabbit simply shoved Leon mid-move to send her flying to the floor. This was tremendously fun.

The most anticipated match of  my trip was next, and the tag title match between the Jumonji Sisters (DASH Chisako and Sendai Sachiko) (c) and Best Friends (Arisa Nakajima and Tsukasa Fujimoto) did not disappoint.

I’d only seen the Jumonjis and Arisa once before, but that was enough to know how good they are and what they’re capable of. As I’ve mentioned several times in recent blogs, Tsukasa Fujimoto is one of the most consistently incredible wrestlers on the planet. Put the four of them together and you get magic.

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They threw everything they could at each other for fifteen action packed minutes, including a variety of innovative and impressive double teams. This was exactly the fantastically worked, logical, and wowing spectacle I wanted, ending in a huge title change to boot. Easily one of the top five matches I saw, if not the best.

Earlier partners faced off in the main event of Kayoko Haruyama vs Tsubasa Kuragaki. Hard hitting contest that was a suitable send off for Haruyama and a great way to end the show.

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JWP Climax 2015 was one of the best shows of my trip, with a great undercard that made made good use of the Haruyama tribute matches and a pair of fantastic matches on top.

 

Categories
Japan Reviews Wrestling

Reina 12/26/15 Live Thoughts

December 26, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan

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After an exhibition dark match and some singing and dancing, the first official match was Rina Yamashita vs Aria Sapphire. Rina continues to shine in the outings I’ve seen her in, and looked good in a relatively straight-forward opener.

Hamuko Hoshi and Masa-ko Takanashi vs Haruka Kato and Koharu Hinata, and Saori Anou and Yuna Manase vs Maki Natsumi and Tae Honma were a pair of fine tag matches, although the comedy spots in the former weren’t my cup of tea. Nothing spectacular, but decent work from all eight wrestlers.

I’d seen Hanako Nakamori and Makoto team at a JWP event, and have to admit they looked much better there than here vs Gabai-jichan and Yako Fujigasaki. This is where the presentation of REINA detracts from the matches, as Gabai-jichan’s general gimmick, him constantly trying to look up Makoto’s skirt, the costumes, the teddy bear attacks, etc all added up to too much nonsense and impaired the potential of the talents involved. I found some of it amusing, but as a whole this was disappointing.

Aja Kong vs Konami was a largely one-sided ten-minute affair. Konami got to show resilience and fire, but the outcome was never in any doubt and I’d like to see what she can do in a more even contest. Good for what it was.

I believe the REINA World Women’s Title Match between Tsukasa Fujimoto (c) and Maki Narumiya was originally advertised as the main event, and honestly should have been. Even the ring announcer seemed to be going off old notes, as it was announced as the main instead of the semi-final. Tsukasa Fujimoto is incredible, and easily one of my favorite wrestlers in the world. She can do comedy, but is at her best when going all out in no-nonsense competitive wrestling. Thankfully that’s what we got here, as she and Maki went to war for this title (after some early mind game attempts by the challenger). This was my first (and so far only) time seeing Narumiya, who definitely impressed. She kept up with Fujimoto and I’m psyched to see more of her work, particularly a rematch of this encounter. One of the best matches of my entire trip.

The main event featured a mixed tag of Hikaru Shida, Jun Kasai and Toru Owashi vs Syuri, Buffalo, and Mineo Fujita. Another decent battle held back by REINA’s dancing, mid-match posing, etc. The animosity was palpable but its impact repeated lessened by sideshow stuff. All six wrestlers looked perfectly good (and I’ve previously seen what Shida and Syuri can do), but this needed to be tightened up a bit and kept in the semi-main spot. Good match that could have been great.

Overall this was an ok show with  one phenomenal match, a couple of good ones, and a whole lot of REINA getting in its own way. If the approach and presentation is working for the core fan base more power to them, but I personally think some tweaks are needed. There are a ton of great wrestlers on the roster, and I’d like to see them get a better platform to show as much in the future.