2035 replies to this topic

[FLIK]

Quote

I think Rossy trying to sue her is just him having whatever grudge he has against her. I mean honestly, does he even represent Shu? And I take it Fuka's just mad because Rossy told her to be mad.

No clue what's up with Rossy but Fuka & Shu go way back so I can buy her being really pissed

Quote

Now she's just another Hotta/Maekawa clone

Not even, they both knew how to pull back so it didn't constanly look like they were murdering folks atleast

[Eivion Thanotos]

FLIK, on Mar 24 2010, 09:31 AM, said:

Quote

I think Rossy trying to sue her is just him having whatever grudge he has against her. I mean honestly, does he even represent Shu? And I take it Fuka's just mad because Rossy told her to be mad.

No clue what's up with Rossy but Fuka & Shu go way back so I can buy her being really pissed

Yeah a year or two ago I know Fuka mentioning Shu being the closest she could possible be to a person without them actually being a lover so they are like BFF or something to that extent.

[dannykeyz]

I am not of the opinion that Kana is too stiff or something.  I think there is always a cycle of somebody becoming the one who's "too stiff" at any particular time as well as the cycle of people who are suddenly over-rated/under-rated.  However, I do think she hasn't really adapted her new style very well and seems to have gone backwards.  She doesn't seem to quite fit working as she is at the moment.  She's too battleartsy working in Joshi.  She needs to go back and incorporate more of what she started with.  She needs more balance imo.

[J.H.]

I love Kana but she does need to tone it down. She was such a fun worker before but now, now she's dangerous and hurting people. Remeber when Kana was fun?

Stiff Hip Attacks?
A rana here and there?

Someone needs to reign her in and say "Look I know you're frustrated but this is the worst way to let out your frustration". If she wants to keep this up then she should just work with BattleArts fulltime...

James

[Eivion Thanotos]

Its hilarious to me how people pimped the hell out of Kana when she first started incorporating kicks into her style and she was just a stiffing jackass, but now, when she has actually improved a decent amount, an accident with Shu has so many turning against her.

[rzombie1988]

Okay, I'm going to respond to a few different things:

Kana is too stiff: Okay, most of the people in this thread have said she's too stiff, but these people are the same people who have marked out over stiffness in matches(even in past Kana matches!). And seriously, Kana still can't hold a candle to some of the dangerous moves and stiff shots that the girls in AJW used to do. Aja Kong would eat her alive in a stiffness competition. Bottomline, how many people has Kana injured? I can't remember her injuring anyone except Shibu, who is okay and will return soon anyway, so the injury was not serious. Can Kana be less stiff? Sure, but now she's going to be stuck with the too stiff tag anyway.  

Kana as the new Maekawa/Hotta: I've been waiting for this comparison for a while now. I'm going to pretty much ask the same question, Maekawa and Hotta are known to be so stiff, but who did they injure? These same people will be marking out over Hotta going clown-punting. Kana is much better than Maekawa(and I like Maekawa) and I'd say she's better and much more exciting than Hotta.

Rossy: Rossy is not going to sue anyone. It's just cheap talk and him mouthing off, but it was newsworthy and interesting to post.

Fuka and Shibu: They are known to be good friends. In fact, everyone seems to like Shibu.

I personally think that Kana is at her peak right now, and is out performing just about anyone not named Kurihara. She brings the fire, the passion and her matches actually look believeable(and not because of the stiffness). I don't blame the Shibu thing on Kana alone. As you can see in the pictures, Shibu isn't even covering up. Maybe Kana works stiffer than others, but it was an unlucky shot and an accident. Pointing the blame at one person is wrong.

[rzombie1988]

Also, Hiroyo Matsumoto got beat by Nanae so quickly because she wasn't feeling 100% that day.

[dannykeyz]

rzombie1988, on Mar 24 2010, 05:25 PM, said:

I personally think that Kana is at her peak right now, and is out performing just about anyone not named Kurihara. She brings the fire, the passion and her matches actually look believeable(and not because of the stiffness.

I find it annoying because Kana's stuff looks too credible at times.  She should win way more than she does if you get me.  You could say the same for someone like Hotta, but they booked her smartly to cover for that.  However, I personally think she's left out that bit of fun in her performances she used to have.  And her submission placement can be terrible and really drags matches off course.  Especially as she NEVER beats anybody not called Oikawa with one.  But yeah, her and Kurihara are the best young girls out there.

[SakuraPudding]

Eivion Thanotos, on *Mar 24 2010, 12:13 PM, said:

Its hilarious to me how people pimped the hell out of Kana when she first started incorporating kicks into her style and she was just a stiffing jackass, but now, when she has actually improved a decent amount, an accident with Shu has so many turning against her.

I've been riding her ass since February way before this, and not just because the stiffness but also because I find her to be an average worker who gets touted way too highly.

Hotta was way more exciting because Hotta reveled in being considered the stiffing objectionable woman queen. Like when Combat got stuck with one leg on the top rope the entire crowd popped a huge wad because we knew Hotta was going to kick the crap out of her.

I get what you mean about her trying to make it look legit and stuff...and that's fine in Battle Arts, but in Joshi she has no mind for storytelling or psychology. She used to with her old style, but right now her faux MMA gimmick just doesn't look good outside of Battle Arts. Hokuto wasn't just the best because she made things look legit, but she added psychology, selling, and storytelling to all her matches. She did a legit style but still had it be a pro-style.

As for being one of the best juniors? I'd put her at the middle at best. Nakagawa would probably be my pick for Kurihara's running mate of best young'in and you also have Sachiko if she can come back with little ring rust, Mizunami who is tremendous, Makoto and Misaki Ohata who are both improving by leaps and bounds and are improving every aspect at which they are weak at and having been putting on some of the better junior matches as of late, Hiroyo who's pure potential, RAY who's just an incredible spot monkey, and even Cherry.

I love Kana in Battle Arts, but she hasn't changed up her style at all outside of battle arts and made it more pro-style. Like if she wants to be the stiff objectionable woman, own it like Hotta did. Otherwise it's just contrived faux MMA.

As for injuries, it might not be initial injuries but concussions are nothing to fuck around with.

[FLIK]

My 2nd attempt at making a music video
A tripply little affair to say the least

Not sure what I was thinking but....enjoy...

Making this made me love this match even more then I allready did

[FLIK]

Put together a new comp of one of my favorite tag teams ever, Hikari Fukuoka & KAORU
As far as I know this is every match they had together that made tape.
They were only a regular team for a little over a year but it was an amazing, amazing run.



Here's the matchlist
$10.00 ($12 outside the US)
Paypal (flik_510@yahoo.com) or Cash (PM me for details)

JWP 10/30/1994 Hikari Fukuoka & Kaoru vs Devil Masami & Hiromi Sugo

JWP 6/16/1995 Hikari Fukuoka & Kaoru vs Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki

JPW 7/23/1995 Hikari Fukuoka & Kaoru vs Cutie Suzuki & Hiromi Yagi

GAEA 9/17/1995 Hikari Fukuoka & KAORU vs Devil Masami & Dynamite Kansai

GAEA 11/3/1995 Hikari Fukuoka & KAORU vs Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki

JWP 12/9/1995 (JWP Tag Titles) Hikari Fukuoka & KAORU vs Dynamite Kansai & Cuty Suzuki

GAEA 1/14 3/16/1996 (Secret Captains Elimination Match) Hikari Fukuoka, KAORU, Devil Masami, Mayumi Ozaki, Cutie Suzuki & Makie Numao vs Chigusa Nagayo, Dynamite Kansai, Hiroumi Sugo, Bolshoi Kid, Bomber Hikaru & Saburo

GAEA 3/8/1996 Hikari Fukuoka & Kaoru vs Chikayo Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu

JWP 7/7/1996 (JWP Tag Titles) Hikari Fukuoka & Kaoru vs Dynamite Kansai & Cuty Suzuki



Also still selling copies of my Sonoko Kato comp
http://flik.theditch.biz/kato.txt

[1JoshI]

This week started off with JWP on Monday (3/22) in Osaka.  They finally filled the tag titles, which had been vacant since Azumi Hyuga's retirment.  The mismatchted midcarder team of KAZUKI & Toshie Uematsu, usually more known for working with other partners and feuding with each other, triumphed over Command Bolshoi & Megumi Yabushita.  We also saw the final three matches of the round-robin portion of the JWP OCC (Open Class Challenger) league.  Sachie Abe beat Yumi Ohka in a meaningless match.  Nanae Takahashi ended up winning the outsiders block with 9 points after taking Leon's head off with a Lariat.  Tsubasa Kuragaki used a lariat of her own on Ran Yu-Yu to finish with 8 points and win the JWP block.  Those two will meet on April 4th (they had a draw during league play) and the winner moves on for a title shot against Kayoko Haruyama on April 18th in Korakuen Hall at the MANIA-X show.

The other big news of the weeks was the final Fuka Matsuri, as Ms. Kakimoto is retiring from puroresu.  In a result that is ridiculous even by comedy battle royale standards, 12-year old Riho somehow got Minoru Suzuki over the top rope to win that event.  Sarah "Dark Angel" Stock was absent due to travel woes, but "Tigre Mask" (Fuuka) & Leon (Stock's replacement) beat HIROKA & Princess Sugey, with Fuuka pinning Sugey.  The semi-main saw Misaki Ohata & Yumi Ohka (subbing for injured Shu Shibutani) draw with Ayumi Kurihara & Natsuki*Taiyo, then Fuuka lost in her final match, eating the Nanaracka from Takahashi.  The show drew 1550 fans, so about 200 more than Hyuga's retirement but a few hundred less than Etsuko Mita and Devil Masami got in their respective retirement shows.

In scattered action, Ice Ribbon had the usual pair of minor shows.  Miyako Matsumoto became a double champion by winning the Triangle Ribbon Championship from Riho (it's always defended in three-way matches) and then successfully defended the main Ice Ribbon title against Makoto.  WAVE ran another mid-week show at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring, with Yumi Ohka beating rookie Sawako Shimono and Toshie/Ran beating GAMI/Ryo Mizunami on the Miz's 22nd birthday.  GAMI did the job and then presumably gave Ryo some cake in the face.  Meiko Satomura beat Shuri (KG from HUSTLE) at the first SMASH show, and NEO had another house show with a card propped up with midgets and has-beens (wait, even the AJW midgets are has-beens).

[rzombie1988]

1JoshI, on Mar 28 2010, 08:30 AM, said:

The show drew 1550 fans, so about 200 more than Hyuga's retirement but a few hundred less than Etsuko Mita and Devil Masami got in their respective retirement shows.

And people say Fuka isn't a draw.

[FLIK]

Hey hey hey, if I were in Japan i'd have shown up too to witness such a glorious event and wish her well in her future endeavors.

It's early mourning, the sun is out, birds are singing, from my window I can see people dancing in the streets.

The long nightmare is over, we are finally living in a 100% Kakimoto free wrestling world.

[SakuraPudding]

rzombie1988, on Mar 28 2010, 08:35 AM, said:

1JoshI, on Mar 28 2010, 08:30 AM, said:

The show drew 1550 fans, so about 200 more than Hyuga's retirement but a few hundred less than Etsuko Mita and Devil Masami got in their respective retirement shows.

And people say Fuka isn't a draw.

No one said she wasn't a draw, but she's a draw for herself, not Joshi. And to be fair, at Hyuga's retirement they didn't open the back seats or whatever and just used normal Joshi seating, and they like had to have a few people stand because of the lack of seats. If they had given full seating I'm sure Hyuga'd bring in a lot more people than that.

Plus Hyuga didn't have Ultimo Dragon and Minoru Suzuki advertised :p

Anyway I just watched Kana vs Emi Sakura. Sweet action, but it did reaffirm my major gripe on Kana. Her matches are always SO SLOW. It's like watching a Tara match. She has better ring psychology that I remembered, but not by too much.

Kana and Tara should team up as the  Slow-Ass Faux MMA Broads

[rzombie1988]

SakuraPudding, on Mar 29 2010, 06:14 AM, said:

rzombie1988, on Mar 28 2010, 08:35 AM, said:

1JoshI, on Mar 28 2010, 08:30 AM, said:

The show drew 1550 fans, so about 200 more than Hyuga's retirement but a few hundred less than Etsuko Mita and Devil Masami got in their respective retirement shows.

And people say Fuka isn't a draw.

No one said she wasn't a draw, but she's a draw for herself, not Joshi. And to be fair, at Hyuga's retirement they didn't open the back seats or whatever and just used normal Joshi seating, and they like had to have a few people stand because of the lack of seats. If they had given full seating I'm sure Hyuga'd bring in a lot more people than that.

Plus Hyuga didn't have Ultimo Dragon and Minoru Suzuki advertised :p

Anyway I just watched Kana vs Emi Sakura. Sweet action, but it did reaffirm my major gripe on Kana. Her matches are always SO SLOW. It's like watching a Tara match. She has better ring psychology that I remembered, but not by too much.

Kana and Tara should team up as the  Slow-Ass Faux MMA Broads

I really hope this post isn't meant to be serious at all, because this is pretty much just trolling and is laughable at best:

Half the people on this board have said Fuka isn't a draw, along with every other possible negative comment. Please tell me how one is a draw for themselves and how one is a draw for joshi.

Suzuki & Ultimo are not significant draws. No one is going to make a special trip just to see Suzuki in a comedy match on a joshi show. Very few non-joshi fans would ever even consider going to a joshi show anyway. Ultimo doesn't even sell out no name indies in Japan.

Hyuga's show had all the seating open and standing room open. I was there, so don't tell me sections were close off.

I guess you are confusing Kana with another wrestler, as I'm completely missing this always slow Kana. You don't like her and that's fine, but there's no reason to start just making things up.

[FLIK]

Quote

Half the people on this board have said Fuka isn't a draw, along with every other possible negative comment. Please tell me how one is a draw for themselves and how one is a draw for joshi.

I've always argued this exact point. I never denied that she doesn't have a fan base and people will show up for her own self promoted shows but she's never made any diffrence in the gate of anyone elses cards

Perfect example, NEO's big show from 3/14 with her in the semi main and they only got like 1200 or so anounced. Whear were those 1500 then?

And I don't mean to say that LITERALLY no one showed up because she was on the card, i'm sure some did, but I don't buy for one second that NEO couldn't have drawn pretty much the same numbers without her.

And even then, if she did bring in some fans what good will that do because in your own words

rzombie1988, on Mar 11 2010, 07:39 PM, said:

I know a few people who will be attending less shows because of her absence(since they go based on whether she will be there or not).

Well hoo-ray. That's all fine and good if she's going to be thear but WTF do you do to draw next show when she's not around?
Putting a less than part time has been and a soon to be retired "princess" over the the 2009 joshi MVP & one of the biggest stars on your roster isn't good for business and is pure bullshit.

See, I don't dislike Fuka meerly because she's just not that good of a wrestler. I've watched a billion bad wrestlers over the years that I don't hate. Fuka goes beyond that, to the point of being offensive to me as a fan. She represents to me everything that is bad and wrong about wrestling in modern times.

In no other previous era would she have been able to have the success she's had. She's not 1/4 the talent Takako or Cutie or Mimi or any of the other big idol girls of the past were. If she even would have made it onto the roster of an AJW or JWP she would have never gotten out of the lower-mid card.

But standards have droped so much that she now gets to be a top star and it's sad to see.
JD, once a really good company full of young talented wrestlers like The Bloody & Sumie Sakai & Megumi Yabushita said fuck those girls, we don't wanna build around people like that. Let's kick them to the curb and get some pretty girls who can sing and dance. Wrestling talent? Who cares about that. And Fuka is the biggest by product of that stupid stinkin mentality.

Girls like Shu & Ohka also came from thear as well, yes, but they actually improved a great deal over the years. Shu by training with Yoshida and Ohka because GAMI booked her to go 20 with every vet she could find for so long that it became impossible for her not to pick up something. Either way, they both showed a desire to imrpove and passion for wrestling that Fuka's never shown and I actually have a lot of respect for and am a fan of theirs.

Has Fuka imrpoved some over the years? Yeah. She's ocasionally passable in recent times and i've even seen her in a few good matches here and thear but not many. But getting better in the ring has never seemed like a priority of hers, too busy modeling or whatever the hell it is she does and too much of an ego maniac to be that dedicated.

On her way out, Hyuga went out of her way to put over damn near everyone she could. On her way out, you can't say the same for Fuka. Meiko? Nanae? Like they needed the rub, big whoop. Except for her buddy Natsuki, Fuka never would put over any of her other contemporaries from the same genration because she was too good for that right? Always had to be protected and treated like something special when she really really wasn't.

So yeah, good riddance.

[SakuraPudding]

rzombie1988, on Mar 29 2010, 08:12 AM, said:

SakuraPudding, on Mar 29 2010, 06:14 AM, said:

rzombie1988, on Mar 28 2010, 08:35 AM, said:

1JoshI, on Mar 28 2010, 08:30 AM, said:

The show drew 1550 fans, so about 200 more than Hyuga's retirement but a few hundred less than Etsuko Mita and Devil Masami got in their respective retirement shows.

And people say Fuka isn't a draw.

No one said she wasn't a draw, but she's a draw for herself, not Joshi. And to be fair, at Hyuga's retirement they didn't open the back seats or whatever and just used normal Joshi seating, and they like had to have a few people stand because of the lack of seats. If they had given full seating I'm sure Hyuga'd bring in a lot more people than that.

Plus Hyuga didn't have Ultimo Dragon and Minoru Suzuki advertised :p

Anyway I just watched Kana vs Emi Sakura. Sweet action, but it did reaffirm my major gripe on Kana. Her matches are always SO SLOW. It's like watching a Tara match. She has better ring psychology that I remembered, but not by too much.

Kana and Tara should team up as the  Slow-Ass Faux MMA Broads

I really hope this post isn't meant to be serious at all, because this is pretty much just trolling and is laughable at best:

Half the people on this board have said Fuka isn't a draw, along with every other possible negative comment. Please tell me how one is a draw for themselves and how one is a draw for joshi.

Suzuki & Ultimo are not significant draws. No one is going to make a special trip just to see Suzuki in a comedy match on a joshi show. Very few non-joshi fans would ever even consider going to a joshi show anyway. Ultimo doesn't even sell out no name indies in Japan.

Hyuga's show had all the seating open and standing room open. I was there, so don't tell me sections were close off.

I guess you are confusing Kana with another wrestler, as I'm completely missing this always slow Kana. You don't like her and that's fine, but there's no reason to start just making things up.

I LOVE Kana, I just don't think she's as great as others. As for slow, I don't mean like she's running around in brick shoes slow. I mean her matches are slow because more than half of the match either her or her opponent are recoiling from ridiculously stiff offense. And then she spends so much time on submissions, that we get maybe 2 minutes of the match that isn't at a snail's pace. I mean I love it in battle arts because it's battle arts, but in joshi it completely disrupts the style of every other girl and makes all of her matches go slow as hell and boring.

As for Fuka's draw...she draws for herself. Her shows are about her, and easy pay days for everyone else. JWP doesn't book her and gets about the same numbers at Korakuen Hall as NEO shows do. Jaguar's a wrestling draw. A random NEO house show booked her and sold out a place that had about 800 seating last year or the year or in 08.

I liked JD Star, it was funny and was never meant to be serious wrestling. It was intentionally a variety esque show. They never put over the athresses as legit competitors. It also wasn't the most visible promotion, so it didn't make joshi look bad.

[FLIK]

Watched OZ 12/09 tv

Really conflicting show.
Didn't draw a huge crowd, maybe 65% full K-hall from the looks of things.
Sad to see but when I really thought about it, there wasn't anything on this show that would be a huge draw to begin with and they got what they deserved.

Nakagawa vs Nao Komatsu - Nao looked nervous as hell making her debut and it really showed in her work. Not eactly an impressive debut to say the least. I would never say anything like "oh there's no hope for this girl" but she's a borderline midget, is starting really late for a joshi wrestler at 26 (to put things in perspective, Momoe Nakanishi was allready retired by age 24) and overall just plain looked like she wasn't ready to be having matches in front of people yet. So yeah, a lot of hard work ahead for little Nao if she's gonna overcome those obsitcals.

Kyoko vs Takako - Way behind on my NEO watching so it's been quite a while since i've seen Kyoko. Happy to see she's droped a good deal of weight. Still big but noticably down from whear she was a few years back. Not happy to see she's still taking way crazier bumbs then she should be at this stage of her career. Match was pretty decent, better then I thought it would be on paper. Takako who i've been down on lately has looked pretty motivated the past couple months for her part as well.

Aja & Matsumoto vs Kansai & Kurihara - Something OZ doesn't get enough credit for sometimes (even from me) is integrating the younger talent into the promotion. Yeah it'd be nice if they won a little more but overall i'm happy with the job they've done using Hiren, Matsumoto & Nakagawa. Early last year Kurihara had a few matches here and thear and since mid 09 she's pretty much been made a regular roster member too and she's been a HUGE breath of fresh air. Her & Aja have such great chemistry together and i'm really dying to see those two in a singles one day. Kansai's another one who kind of gets slept on these days as well because when she wants to she can still go. I loved her two big matches in 09 vs Aja & Ozaki and most of her mid card stuff has been really decent as well this year, especially if she's working one of the younger kids.

Ozaki vs KAORU street fight - Fucking loved this match. Not everone's cup of tea I know but this is my kind of wrestling. On the smaller shows her act can sometimes be a little stale but Ozaki's big matches always deliver for me. Really dug the gimmick too and hope they use it again somewhear down the line. Here's whear we start getting into the booking problems and why I think this show didn't draw though. The big giant break up of D-Fix after all these years should be a big, huge ass deal but the build up to it was so half assed that I can't blame people for not being interested. Even though they teased it for a while before that, the break up only happened 1 month earlier, hardly enough time to get a ton of momentom behind things, just boom, no more D-Fix, here's a street fight.

(Tag Titles) Kato/Nagashima vs RanKino - Same deal as the match above. Good match, shitty, nearly non existant build up to it. These teams have met several times before but the feud was cold at this point. Kato & Nagashima hadn't even teamed in the previous 4 months leading up to this match (since they lost the belts to Ran & Akino) and had spent the last 2 shows before this fighting each other but again, boom, just like that it's lets team up again, here's your semi main event.

(Wiard of OZ) Toyota vs Amano - And once again, same thing. The match was good but not THAT good and this had the most pathetic build of all. Since losing the title to OZ at the start of the year Amano hasn't done ANYTHING of note. Most of her 2009 was spent beating the young girls in opening matches, beating outsiders like Bolshoi & Yabushita in mid card matches of no importance or jobing in tags. There was not one bit of momentum behind her going in, none, she wasn't treated as a main event title contender or anything aproaching special. Then, 2 shows ago she gets a flash win over Toyota in 4 mins and the next show they have a comedy 3 way match involving Nakagawa and that's how the fuck they build their K-Hall main event?????

The majority of Oz Academy's shows take place at Shinjuku Face or other smaller arena's that can only seat a few hundred people. They only run a building like K-Hall that can seat a couple thousand 1 to 3 times a year so it's, ya know, kind of a big deal, like the equivilant of their Wrestlemania. And the thing with Mania is that it's a show that's built up to for months before hand and it's hammered into your head that hey, this is the biggest show of the year, don't miss it. It wouldn't work quite as well I don't think if they half assed slapped together a show a few weeks before hand that was no diffrent from your random RAW or whatever.

This is a problem that a lot of promotions in Japan have too. You can't just randomly put Big star A vs Big star B in a match, book a big building and then exspect massive amounts of people to show up. This is the same reason I think Meiko/Tamura was a disapointing draw. The age of the "dream match" is over and you've gotta put a little more effort into it now...

All that said, i'm actually feeling pretty positive about the company in 2010. Ohka as Ozaki's new lackey is a fresh addition to the roster and the Jungle Jack split if treated as the main feud should provide for some awesome matches

Quote

I liked JD Star, it was funny and was never meant to be serious wrestling. It was intentionally a variety esque show. They never put over the athresses as legit competitors. It also wasn't the most visible promotion, so it didn't make joshi look bad.

It didn't start out that way though. It'd be one thing if it was some new company but JD had a good 6-7 solid years of being a really good, quite visable, traditional joshi fed behind it before it all got pissed away. And yeah, it wasn't so bad near the end in 06 & 07 when it was all about Shu, Cherry, Kimura, Kurihara, Ray, etc.. I actually really loved the Shu/Cherry/Yuri vs Carribean feud, but go back and suffer through some mid 2000's, 03 & 04 athress matches, and then tell me what you think...

[RyanJ]

So, am I weird for thinking AKINO is pretty damn good, even now? Her Queen Bee work is pretty good, loved her match with Kimura.