Several shows held on 27-10-24

I watched a bunch of the shows from the 27th, consuming more wrestling than is medically safe in the process.

Marvelous Big Show in Nagoya 27-10-24

I liked this show a lot. At the outset, there's a ton of variety stuff, starting with dancing and, like, a comedy exhibition which despite involving a referee is not counted as a part of the card on cagematch or anywhere else, a large karate performance, that extended Queen of Villains ad--watch Queen of Villains, by the way--and Chigusa talking on the microphone for quite some time. I like variety, and I think it adds something to wrestling shows.

And although I don't really understand Japanese, Chigusa Nagayo is always laughing on commentary. She called Sareee "Sareee-chan." She's just having fun watching the wrestlers do their stuff. There's very little killing intent from the GOAT on commentary here.

Sareee vs. Senka Akatsuki

I've been interested in seeing this match ever since her incredible pro-test as Naho Tanaka. I thought that the wrestler who did that pro-test could showcase the ideal rookie match. There was a lot to love on this one, starting with the moment where Sareee clapped her hands on Senka's shoulders with the clean break and Senka instantly saw red and started hitting her with forearms.

There are definitely some spots where Sareee's love of Inoki come through, like when Sareee let the boston crab slip and just rode on top holding the leg trap as a submission. Senka's selling is pretty phenomenal, by the way. Selling doesn't mean "doing nothing," by the way. The best moment of selling comes from the moment when she tried to stop Sareee from hitting the stomp, but could only weakly hold onto Sareee's leg (which is one of my favorite calls of the night, by the way, when Chigayo shouts that there was no guard for the stomp). Of course, the bottom rope drop kick is front and center in this match, and Senka sells it very well.

I definitely wasn't expecting it, but...Senka did come off as a physically strong person in this match, using her strength to overpower Sareee on a handful of occasions. Still, it mostly seems pretty clear throughout that Sareee is letting Senka get in offense and tightly controlling the flow of momentum, and if it was ever in doubt, Sareee ends it at will.

Leo Isaka, Starboy Charlie & Titus Alexander vs. JAC, Takaya Shibayama, & Vinnie Massaro

We got six dudes. One team is basically all hoss-type guys, one team is athletic type guys. Also, the hosses seem to be pretty mean dudes. I don't have a lot to say--I came here for the joshi wrestlers--but as I understand it, Leo Isaka was trained by Chigusa, and a bunch of these fellas train with the Marvelous girls. 

The highlight for me was when two of the athletic fellas went onto the stage and Chigusa was like, "Oh, sick!" Also, one guy gave a chokeslam while standing on another guy's back, which gave the slam extra height. It didn't really make it look better, but it's a cool idea.

Hyan, Jessy Jackson, Sadie Gibbs & Sandra Moone vs. Ai Houzan, Chikayo Nagashima & Magenta (Maria & Riko Kawahata)

I also don't have much to say about this one. It's fun, they get weapons in there. It's definitely not the worst appearance of a veteran that occurred on the 27th. There is some pretty good comedy with a metal bowl that comes into play, as well as a wiffle bat and some other dinky "weapons" that wouldn't hurt anyone. They fucking killed Chikayo Nagashima, who also got to throw a chair at someone's head. There was a tower of chairs There's only a few real noteworthy botches, and none of them are really bad at all.

Oh yeah, the team of foreigners showed up in skimpy denim shorts and jerseys.

It's a lot of fun.

All that stuff in the middle

There's a musical performance, and then after that, Chigayo gets on the mic...and after a while she also fucking sings. It's pretty tight, to be honest.

Meiko Satomura vs. Takumi Iroha

There's this cool pair of shots from the opening of the match...

The tilted camera following Meiko gives her a sort of intense feeling, and the concentration on Takumi's face is amazing. This match is part of Meiko's retirement run, obviously, but she definitely has enough in the tank to make it all very interesting.

The kicks are obviously good, but the mat work in this match is even better. In one sequence, Takumi breaks the submission Meiko's got on her and immediately does a seated suplex on her. There's this transition into an STF that might be the greatest single STF setup I've ever seen. I don't believe it's original, it just looked really good here.

There is a ton of struggle, and they both end up putting in a ton of work to generate drama in this match by selling, drawing on different parts of their skill sets, and manipulating the momentum of the match really precisely. Meiko takes some pretty big bumps, too! The final stretch is pretty amazing.

Team 200kg vs. Bob Bob Momo Banana

So, I'll just get this out of the way: I think this is the best match among all those listed here, and that's no mean feat.

It is a little funny, because with both teams' entrance music you wouldn't necessarily think you were going to get a phenomenal match. Team 200kg come out to Bon Jovi's It's My Life, an all time hilarious song that accentuates the comedic side of Hashimoto and Yuu, and Bob Bob Momo Banana's entrance music must be heard to be believed. But the fact remains: Bob Bob Momo Banana put on an absolutely incredible babyface performance in this match.

And man, Yuu and Chihiro fucking kill those girls over and over again. But Mio Momono is apparently impossible to put down, no matter how strong you are. I like to mention favorite spots, but there are tons of incredible spots here. My two favorites might be the opening spot, where Yurika and Mio run face-first into Team 200kg, and the chop that Yuu killed Mio with.

Bob Bob Momo Banana dying in
the opening moments of their match

Their last match together, in Sendai Girls, was built in such a way that you couldn't imagine anyone believably knocking down Team 200kg. This match, on the other hand, featured an extensive series of hope spots building up until you really can believe all over again that Bob Bob Momo Banana has got what it takes.

I think if you shot a canon at Mio Momono, she could probably jump back up and dropkick you after.

This is a perfect match. I don't necessarily mean it's five stars, because I don't like star ratings, but I do mean that there's nothing missing from the composition of this match. I think this is a must-watch match.

SHOW RECOMMENDED

TJPW Live Tour 2024 Autumn 27-10-24

I liked this show, as I do all TJPW shows, but I also think that unless you're really interested in what TJPW is doing, like I am, this show would be a pass for most people. The Up Up Girls perform, and it rules. 

Arisu Endo & Toga vs. Chika Nanase & Kira Summer

I don't really hate rookie matches, and in fact I enjoy seeing inexperienced wrestlers fill the role of the rookie with varying levels of skill.

Chika and Kira are still crazy green, but if you like watching rookie matches as I do, this is a prime example. You'll see a lot in the way of improvement on the part of Toga, but Chika and Kira aren't completely stagnant or anything.

It's nice. :)

Haruna Neko, Mahiro Kiryu & Suzume vs. Pom Harajuku, Raku & Yuki Aino

The return of Haruna Neko?! If I'm being honest, I like everyone on Pom's team more than everyone on Haruna's team. I mean, I don't dislike anyone, although when I see Mahiro Kiryu's apology gimmick I hope that she'll lose the match every time.

Anyways, this match was pretty funny. Mahiro walking around desperately trying to see if anyone brought cat ears for her is classic. There was something funny about Haruna impassively watching Pom go for the roll-up, and Yuki acting like she was about to break up the pin.

As always, Pom is the best part of this match by a long shot, but Raku wasn't far behind, and Haruna wasn't far behind her, either. Suzume did some cool stuff, though.

Uta Takami vs. Haru Kazashiro

I have very little to say: this is a great match from two very talented rookies. If you don't like rookies, you probably don't like TJPW at all, so whether or not I recommend this is immaterial, because if you watch TJPW you probably would already be interested in this match.

I bet Haru wins the Next Gen tournament.

Runa Okubo vs. Yuki Kamifuku

Runa Okubo's last match before going away to finish her schooling, this match is basically here to showcase her talents and personality one last time before she maybe leaves the business forever. A lot of people are sad because moments between Haru and Runa have been an important part of the undercard for a little bit, and with this we won't be able to see the two of them develop as wrestlers at the same time.

As for the match itself, it's pretty good. Kamiyu has sort of taken up the position of the established wrestler who shows no mercy to the rookies, so she's the ideal pick for this one. There's a surprisingly good forearm trade spot in the middle. Rather than two people trading shots evenly, it's abundantly clear that the harder hits are coming from Yuki, and Runa is fighting an uphill battle just to get one over on Runa.

The finish has a nice show of respect in that Yuki chooses to hit her with the Famouser twice before pinning her. Of course, Runa gets on the mic to address the crowd briefly and she can't stop crying. It's good.

Shoko Nakajima & Yoshiko Hasegawa vs. Moka Miyamoto & Kaya Toribami

Everyone but Shoko here is a 3-4 year vet, but I sort of feel like everyone in this match continues to carry a sense of constantly trying to evolve, even Shoko whose efforts to grow stronger show in her musculature.

Even though she's been wrestling for as long as the others, Yoshiko's treated as being slightly below the others in this match, so there is a good opening stretch of poor Yoppy getting her ass kicked until she can mount a comeback for the not-quite-hot tag to let Shoko in. (This is for the better, since hot tags are overused.) Unfortunately, Shoko ends up in a very similar position, ending up on the receiving end of significant offense from Kaya before tagging Yoppy back in.

The whole match is sort of a little exercise in controlling momentum, which I always think is pretty neat.

Himawari & Rika Tatsumi vs. 121000000 (Maki Itoh & Miyu Yamashita)

I know you could probably describe Itoh and Yamashita as being overexposed, especially for any Western fans who follow the indies, but I don't really care. Itoh and Yamashita were a big part of getting me into TJPW, and anyways I think anybody who kicks people in the head rules. 

As for the match itself, it's pretty fun. There's some decent comedy in here, some variations on the falling headbutt bit, Itoh getting heat by biting Himawari's hair, Yamashita beats the tar out of people, everyone stooges at least a little bit.

Miu Watanabe & Wakana Uehara vs. Mizuki & Shino Suzuki

Look, if you don't think that Miu is one of the best wrestler on the planet right this second, you can get out of my face, alright? This match manages to showcase all the wrestlers, but Miu definitely looks the best by the end. I have nothing else to say about this match.

Anyways, it's just a pretty standard touring show for TJPW.

SHOW RECOMMENDED, BUT PROBABLY ONLY IF TJPW IS YOUR THING

Marigold Fantastic Adventure 27-10-24

This show was also pretty good. Marigold is another company that is super heavy on the 

Victoria Yuzuki vs. Komomo Minami

Yuzuki is one of my favorites, so I was rooting for her from the start, but I think it might be more natural to root for Komomo, who is trying to catch up to and compare with Victoria Yuzuki, who's being built as a young genius. The match was good, and served to underline how much Komomo is not catching up to Yuzuki. They shook hands after the match.

Rea Seto & Minami Yuuki vs. Nao Ishikawa & Myla Grace

Hey, speaking of Minamis, it's Komomo's real rival, Minami Yuuki. And teaming with her is Rea Seto, whose Jojo pose is good this match.

It's not really anything special, there are a handful of awkward moments and some good wrestling as well. Myla Grace has a lot of upside, and Rea Seto is the only rookie steadfast in doing the rookie dropkick spam. Nao Ishikawa, of course, is good.

Rea Seto's Jojo pose submission rules. There's a really funny moment where she ducks the elbow that hits Myla, then turns away and points at them smiling. Also, Myla utterly stretches Rea at one point, fucking hell.

Kizuna Tanaka vs. Naho Yamada

Nepo baby versus poached talent, and Naho Yamada comes out singing! I thought Tanaka came out looking better in this one, but that might just be because I think the "figure eight" is a stupid submission nobody should use. Tanaka also is in the Victoria Yuzuki boat of looking better on average than you'd expect a rookie to look. That's not to say Yamada looks bad here, I just think this match showed Kizuna Tanaka's potential more.

I thought this was a pretty good match. Someone in the comments pointed out that Tanaka is constantly holding her back after matches, which is evidently supposed to be selling the damage, but it's not really very convincing.

Utami Hayashishita & Kouki Amarei & Misa Matsui vs. MIRAI & Mai Sakurai & Natsumi Showzuki

This was a good little time-limit draw. Some people say that Marigold relies too much on time-limit draws, but I don't give a shit, I like time-limit draws, especially with a roster of this size.

I like every single wrestler in this match, and I thought it was straight-forwardly a good showcase for every wrestler here. The six-man tags tend to be a highlight for these shows, and I don't think that's different here.

Miku Aono & Nanae Takahashi vs. Bozilla & CHIAKI

This match was a blast all the way through, and although it mostly just was there to give Nanae and Miku a bit of a booster, I have to say that Bozilla and CHIAKI are a great tag team every time they get paired up. They have a lot of chemistry and make sense as a tag team. I want to see CHIAKI constantly get into trouble and have Bozilla beat people up to get her out. I don't know, it's pretty tight.

The match is really good, too. Miku rejects Nanae's friendliness, but Nanae keeps up with it. Bozilla kills Miku repeatedly, Nanae runs into the wall that is Bozilla recently, CHIAKI is a real jerk. In the end, though, Miku and Nanae end up looking pretty strong, and it seems probable that one or both of them will challenge Sareee for her belt soon. CHIAKI occasionally gets one up on Miku, though, and I think that she could believably challenge Miku for her belt and put on a pretty good match. I'm definitely interested in it after this tag match

Nanae tries to mess with Bozilla after the match and Bozilla just chucks her across the ring, providing us with a prospective answer as to who is more unfuckwithable between the two of them

Marigold, uhh, Mask Fiesta 27-10-24

I'm not gonna review any of the matches on this show, but it is really fun. To be honest, it's the better show when compared to the other Marigold show. Rea Seto's representative animal is...a chihuahua dog. Also, a certain someone did their best Ikemen impression.

SHOW RECOMMENDED

NXT Halloween Havoc 27-10-24

I promise not to focus too much on the morals of people I don't know on this blog, but...I wonder how many of the wrestlers on this PPV are in the NXT QAnon cult? Anyways, I don't follow the weekly product, so take the match reviews with a grain of salt. Because of that, I didn't know...most of these wrestlers.

Also, I did have to turn on music. I listened to Summoning as well as Oran Juice Jones at different points in the PPV, simply because the commentary team for NXT sucks. Look, if I'm watching this I will not be hearing a single SHUCKY DUCKY QUACK QUACK, and nobody can fucking make me. 

Oba Femi vs. Tony D'Angelo

I'm not gonna lie, I fucking hate Tony's gimmick. It just...sucks. I also hate the branding on the match, and I think this spear through the barricade spot is starting to get massively overused. I remember the first time it happened it ruled...now, it's almost like it's a requisite spot for certain match types in the fed. I let the music off briefly there, but immediately after the Diablo 4 commentary call, I turned music back on and the match near-instantly improved.

The highlight of the match for me was Oba Femi killing Tony's stupid family, and the final run-in of Tony's stupid family killing Oba Femi for the win.

It's a really good match.

Giulia & Stephanie Vaquer vs. Cora Jade & Roxanne Perez

Oh buddy, this is it, the best match on the show. Look, I have to have some respect for Cora and Roxanne for hanging in there with two of the best wrestlers on the planet.

That being said, why did the second partner reach for a rope break in the stereo STF spot? That was fucking stupid. She's not legal in the match, reaching the ropes literally does nothing. There were also just too many stereo spots and some of them gave the match a corny feeling at inappropriate moments.

Andre Chase vs. Ridge Holland

Man, this Andre Chase looks like a real fucking geek. That being said, I'm inclined to lean a bit towards Meltzer's rating on this one than the reaction some people have had. I think that this match is pretty good. There aren't a ton of great spots, and honestly most of the spots in here really, really suck. No, most of the spots suck. But the actual psychology at play and the momentum of the match works, and the requisite end-of-match fake out on the finish with that horror villain eye rake was really good. The gimmick for Chase sucks incredibly bad, though. I've never hated a gimmick more. Also, I was pissed that the ambulance didn't drive off with Andre Chase in it.

Ethan Page vs. Trick Williams

That's right, I skipped the gauntlet match in my show review. What are you gonna do about it?

I like that he kicked the pumpkin off Ethan Page's head, it was fun. I also think there are a ton of little problems holding this match back. Here are some of them: of all the things you should sell, your opponent kicking out is rarely one of them; the referee looks like a fucking moron after the rope break spot; when he poured the bag out and I saw it wasn't thumb tacks, I thought it was the stupidest thing I'd seen all night; when the landing on the washers was sold, I realized there was something even stupider; this "devil" gimmick really didn't work in this match; finally, if you've been hit in the nuts why would you carefully drop the stairs to the side? Anyways, the best bump was the bodyslam onto the steps.

I recommend this match only if you pause the PPV after the pin and walk away. That would really be best, because then you won't have to see Bully Ray doing a fucking run-in to drop lame, unconvincing punches on two current stars for some god-damned reason. At any rate, it's the third best match behind Oba/Tony and the women's tag alike.

On the whole, SHOW WAS OK

I have some other thoughts, just generally. I hate that NXT is the show for gooners, which is part of why I don't follow the weekly product. There's nothing wrong with a sexy wrestler, but there's a big difference between just letting certain wrestlers be sexy and building a brand around it. That's the sort of thing you should be rejecting as much as possible. Also, like I said above, I think this commentary duo is for the birds.

I hate that Marvel-brained shit they're packaging Zaria with. I groaned in agony seeing that video play on screen. As for the wrestler herself, I'm excited, she seems pretty sick.

This whole thing with the Boogeyman was pretty funny, but I also thought it was incredibly stupid at the same time.

I think WWE is wrestling for children.

Oz Academy Kyohi Ranbu 27-10-24

Finally, back to some real graps. This is my second favorite show in this whole lineup, and that's only because the undercard was...well, it was what it was. If the lower part of the card was on the same level as the other shows here, it'd easily be my favorite match. The opening ceremony is pretty fun, actually, but probably not on the same level as some of the others above.

The first two matches are Dump Matsumoto, Yumiko Hotta, & Kaoru Ito roughing up Chi Chi, Ram Kaicho, and Tomoka Inaba, and Tsubasa Kuragaki killing Honoka and Masked Hanahana, and they're both pretty skippable mostly. I mean, I thought that the first match was nice because I love Chi Chi and Ram, and I really, really love Dump, who was the greatest heel of all time in her prime. It's mostly just harmless fun.

Kakeru & Maya Yukihi vs. Kohaku (or is it Cohaku?) & Momoka Hanazano vs. FWC (Hazuki & Koguma)

The stars of this match are, in my opinion, Maya Yukihi and FWC, but especially Hazuki, and when Maya and Hazuki got in against each other it felt pretty electric. I think there was a perception that FWC would probably get booed, and normally that would be a pretty good guess, but they actually had everyone on their side. Huge amount of variety in this match alone, as you had Kohaku and Momoka playing a somewhat comedic role (Momoka moreso), including hiding out in the beginning, while the other two teams hit on a serious tone as, essentially, heel and babyface teams.

One highlight of the match was everyone posing with Momoka while she was in the camel clutch. She really didn't look happy, and Koguma jumped up when she started crying. Even Kakeru seemed to hate that. But it was all a ruse, and she hit her with the eyepoke and went right into a stellar sequence against those two.

Also, when Maya stiffed Kohaku with that kick. I'm sorry, I love it when people get stiffed. Anyways, the rest of their sequence afterwards was also phenomenal.

Another highlight was when Momoka fucking punched the wet floor sign into Kakeru's head, that was so fucking tight. Right after that there's a sort of camera botch that misses the best angles for a couple of moments, but it's all worth it to see Momoka kill Kakeru.

The finish is good, and the crowd really liked it.

Last Woman Standing Match featuring AKINO, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Itsuki Aoki, Jaguar Yokota, Rina Yamashita, Ryo Mizunami, Saori Anou, Sonoko Kato, Syuri, and ZONES, and the OZ Openweight title match against Mayumi Ozaki

I've thoroughly run out of energy to write about these shows, so I'll simply say this: these two matches fucking rule. The end of the first match devolving into a struggle just to survive leading into the title match, where Mayumi Ozaki starts the match by immediately throwing a chair at her opponent's head before the bell even rings. It's just perfect. Slow build on the 5v5, and Ozaki's opponent gets fucking destroyed in their match. It's so fucking awesome. Mayumi Ozaki rules, both of these matches ruled, you have to respect a 56 year old woman who is willing to book herself in a match where she takes a table bump. 

It's just too bad about Ozaki-gun.

SHOW FUCKING RECOMMENDED

If it seems like I've given too much to a show where I praised three matches out of five, consider the fact that the Last Woman Standing match is 60 minutes long.

I'm about to embark on a massive OZ Academy watchthrough. I don't have everything, but what I do have I'm going to bump and review on here. It's gonna be a blast!

OTHER SHOWS

There were a bunch of other shows on the 27th: JCW, ICW, Ice Ribbon, Diana, Stardom, AJPW, NJPW, PROGRESS, DDT, Dragon Gate, NOAH. I did not watch these, although I might watch some in the future. I did catch the Ice Ribbon digest for that show, and it seemed pretty good, but Ice Ribbon is also imploding right now.