While it probably seems like I am on a Konami kick, it wasn’t intentional. Since this event happened back in July, I have been waiting for REINA to release it on DVD so that I could buy it. Unfortunately, the official DVD was corrupted, and only the last two matches were able to be watched. Luckily, this match was the main event so it survived unscathed.

Kagetsu and Jun Kasai vs. Konami and Yuko Miyamoto

As this is a lighttube deathmatch, there are lighttubes attached to two sides of the ring as well as bundles in two of the corners. The men start out, they do some introductory work before Miyamoto tags in Konami, but Kasai wants no part of badass Konami so he tags in Kagetsu. Konami tags Miyamoto back in, Miyamoto tries to push Kagetsu into the lighttubes but she wiggles away. Wristlock by Miyamoto but Kagetsu kicks him in the leg, Kagetsu tries to throw Miyamoto into the lighttubes but Miyamoto reverses it and Kagetsu is the first wrestler to bleed. Miyamoto slices Kagetsu with a piece of lighttube before hitting a fist drop, cover by Miyamoto but it gets two. Miyamoto tags in Konami, elbows by Konami but Kagetsu dropkicks her when she goes off the ropes and tags in Kasai. Konami and Kasai both grab lighttubes, Konami hits Kasai with hers but Kasai blocks it and throws Konami into the lighttubes. Konami rolls out of the ring but Kagetsu goes out after her and chokes her in the crowd. Kasai rolls Konami back in, Kasai gets a knife-like thing and slices Konami’s head with it. Kasai tags Kagetsu, kicks by Kagetsu and she dropkicks Kagetsu in the back for a two count. Kasai returns, Konami elbows him but Kasai headbutts her to the mat. Kasai gets a lighttube and busts Konami in the head with it, Kagetsu comes in and they both shoulderblock Konami. Kasai gets more lighttubes, he puts them on the mat and hits a piledriver onto them for a two count. Kasai picks up Konami but Konami sneaks in a schoolboy for a two count, dropkick by Konami and Kasai falls back into the lighttubes. Konami tags in Miyamoto, Miyamoto knocks down Kasai and then scoop slams Kagetsu.

Lariat by Miyamoto on Kasai, he goes for a piledriver but Kasai blocks it, kick by Kasai and he hits a DDT. Kasai tags in Kagetsu, dropkicks by Kagetsu and she hits a pair of jumping elbows in the corner. Spear by Kagetsu, she gets a few lighttubes and puts them on the mat, she picks up Miyamoto and hits a Samoan Drop onto the tubes. Cover by Kagetsu, but it gets a two count. Kagetsu goes for a spear but Miyamoto blocks it and hits a vertical suplex. Miyamoto tags in Konami, kicks to the chest by Konami but Kagetsu snapmares her and kicks Konami in the back. Konami returns the favor but uses lighttubes with her kick, which is more effective. Kagetsu does the same to her but Miyamoto comes in and they double team Kagetsu in the corner. Fisherman suplex hold by Konami, but it gets a two count. Konami gets a bundle of lighttubes and puts them on Kagetsu’s chest, but Kagetsu ducks the kick and tosses her the bundle before kicking them into Konami’s chest. Kagetsu tags in Kasai, lariat by Kasai but Miyamoto breaks up the cover. Brainbuster by Kasai, he picks up Konami and slams her on the mat. Kasai puts a lighttube bundle on her chest and goes up top, but Kagetsu avoids the Pearl Harbor Splash. Yankee Driver by Miyamoto to Kasai, Konami puts the bundle of lighttubes in front of Kasai’s chest and kicks them into him, but Kagetsu breaks up the pin. Buzzsaw Kick by Konami to Kasai and she hits a fisherman suplex hold, but it gets a two count. Konami gets a lighttube bundle but Kasai grabs it when she goes to use it and headbutts the bundle into her face. Lariat by Kasai, he picks up Konami and hits the double underhook facebuster for two. Scoop slam by Kasai, he goes up top and he nails the Pearl Harbor Splash for the three count! Your winners are Jun Kasai and Kagetsu!

For a change of pace, I really enjoyed it. Miyamoto and Kasai let Konami and Kagetsu be the stars of the match, as they had very little interaction against each other. They didn’t go overboard with the weapons as they only used the lighttubes, no waiting for five minutes while a contraption was made which can really slow down deathmatches. Konami didn’t look like she was having a ton of fun but like I said above, this is something that most wrestlers do at some point, almost like they have to prove they can do any style of match. For a 20 minute deathmatch it was fast paced, always something going on, and everything was really smooth. The lighttube spots generally felt organic, they weren’t going too far out of their way to use them as they were always within arm’s reach. A fun match that I can easily recommend to fans of either Joshi wrestler.  Recommended

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One of my greatest fears in life is that Joshi City will just turn into a review website, which was not the original intention when I first created it almost a year ago (see all those categories on the right on the main page?). With how quickly Stardom uploads events now, however, the bulk of the posts have been reviews as since Stardom is the most popular Joshi promotion I did not want to skip any of their events. I still intend to review their shows, however I also am going to try to do other updates as well so that the site doesn’t turn into Stardom City.

With that in mind, welcome to the first edition of The State of Joshi! This will be a special collector’s item in a few years like the first Wrestling Observer, so be sure to print it out and have it professionally graded. I do not want to just do a results report as I find those tedious to type up, but just give an update on what has been going on around the scene. I do not know if this will be a weekly, monthly, or random type of column but I hope to keep people up to date on all the bigger stories going on in Joshi Wrestling while sprinkling in my opinion on Joshi as well.

Stardom – Championships Held Hostage by Threedom

Joshi promotion Stardom currently has a very unique situation with their title scene, with three wrestlers holding all eight titles in the promotion:

Io Shirai – World of Stardom Championship, Goddesses of Stardom Championship, Artist of Stardom Championship
Mayu Iwatani – High Speed Championship, Goddesses of Stardom Championship, Artist of Stardom Championship
Kairi Hojo – Wonder of Stardom Championship, Artist of Stardom Championship

The promotion as a whole only has nine active contracted wrestlers according to their website, but even with a small roster all the belts are held by the Three Daughters of Stardom (aka Threedom). In most promotions, this would be a very bad thing, as if a promotion is this top heavy it leaves them vulnerable if something happens to one of the top stars. There is literally no upper midcard in Stardom, as in the last year Threedom has elevated themselves so high that no other wrestler is close to their level. So far in 2016, no contracted wrestler in Stardom has pinned any member of Threedom, with their small handful of losses coming against Freelancers.

Short term this is an issue, a gap this noticeable is never a good thing as it leads to the matches being less compelling and if there was a major injury then no other wrestler is poised to step up. Some of it is not Stardom’s fault, as last year they lost three wrestlers that would have been upper midcarders or challengers of Threedom: Act Yasukawa, Yoshiko, and Koguma. The new rookies that debuted aren’t up to speed yet and Stardom doesn’t usually have Freelancers hold their major titles unless it is for a specific storyline. It takes time to build up wrestlers so it is a waiting game while they get there.

Long term they should be ok as long as none of the Threedom wrestlers get hurt. Oedo Tai should have a title (or two) by the fall, as they are building Kagetsu well. If Kagetsu loses her title challenges this summer, she will be knocked right back to the midcard like everyone else and the cycle will continue. Yoko Bito is in the same boat, if she comes back and is able to pick up where she left off, she could challenge Threedom by the end of the year, or she could become just another midcarder as well. I am holding off judgement until the end of the year as things can change so fast in wrestling, but at the moment Stardom has the largest gap between the top and everyone else in wrestling and sometime within the next few months it is an issue that needs to be addressed to shake things up a bit in the promotion.

Catch The WAVE – The Biggest Tournament of the Year (that we can’t watch)

Unbeknownst to many wrestling fans, Pro Wrestling WAVE is currently in the middle of one of the largest tournaments of the year as 32 wrestlers are participating to take the crown. Unfortunately, none of these matches have ‘made tape’ yet so we haven’t gotten to watch any of it. WAVE’s show on V*PARADISE will eventually catch up but it tends to be at least a month behind, and matches on the show are clipped. We heard rumors of WAVE starting their own online subscription which may have helped, but as of May 22nd there has not been any additional news.

The tournament is using what they referred to as “World Cup” rules, which are pretty simple. The 32 wrestlers are split into eight Blocks of 4. Within each Block, each wrestler has a singles match against the other three wrestlers in their Block. After all the matches are done, the two top wrestlers in each Block move on to the Knockout Round. That begins the 16 wrestler single elimination tournament until only one wrestler is left. Pro Wrestling WAVE added wrestlers from a variety of promotions, including SEAdLINNNG, Daijo Pro, Sendai Girls’, Ice Ribbon, JWP, REINA, and even Ryukyu Dragon. The winner of the tournament gets a shot at the single’s championship and 1 Million Yen. So far most of the Blocks have had two of the three matches while others are just about done, here are the current standings:

The wrestlers I put a * have locked up a spot in the Knockout Round. LEON is injured and has forfeited the rest of her points. The tournament goes through June 5th so we still have a ways to go, but I hope the standings at least shows the quality of wrestlers that WAVE assembled and hopefully some of these matches (or maybe all of them on DVD) will be released soon.

Makoto – Ace of a Forgotten Promotion

While I try to discuss as many different promotions, there is one I don’t talk about very often – REINA. REINA got a bit more love in 2015 as it was one of the promotions that Kana wrestled in quite a bit and Syuri was the ace. Unfortunately, Kana has left and Syuri is now a Freelancer, leaving the promotion without the wrestlers that many fans identified with. Add in that REINA rarely makes tape, and it is easy to forget that they even exist.

Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, not every promotion can get maximum coverage as there are simply too many promotions, but it does leave Makoto in the dark. Makoto won the REINA World Women’s Championship on March 25th against Tsukasa Fujimoto, and has taken over the role of Ace of the promotion. Makoto’s next big match is against Miyako Matsumoto on May 24th at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring, which likely won’t be taped. She is in the Catch the WAVE tournament I mentioned above, which hopefully will keep her in the spotlight and maybe bring some fans back with her to REINA. Makoto is a nine year veteran but is only 26 years old and has many years in front of her to compete at a high level, so we can hope more of her matches become available as the year progresses.

Big Matches In the Pipeline

One of the good things about Joshi is they like to tell us way in advance what we should be looking forward to. Here is what we currently have announced:

May 24th – Makoto vs. Miyako Matsumoto (REINA)
June 5th – Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo vs. Meiko Satomura and Mika Iwata (Stardom)
June 16th – Thunder Rock vs. Kagetsu and Kyoko Kimura (Stardom)
June 16th – Yoko Bito vs. TBD (Stardom)
June 19th – Aja Kong vs. Hana Kimura (Oz Academy)
June 22nd – Riho vs. Kaori Yoneyama (Gatoh Move)
July 18th – Sonoko Kato vs. Mayumi Ozaki (Oz Academy)
July 31st – Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Aja Kong (Matsumoto Produce Show)

That is it for this week, next time I will give some news and thoughts on SEAdLINNNG, Marvelous, and probably whatever Stardom is up to. Until then, if you have any suggestions or feedback feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @PuroCentral.

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