Three Smashing Joshi Clashes

Sendai Girls 2015/07/30

Arisa Nakajima vs. Meiko Satomura

Completely straight-forward and brutal match, it’s almost like Finlay and Low-Ki turned female and charged at each other because of some long time beef over dick size or something. This was basically a slugfest sprint as they were kicking the shit out of each other almost right off the bat. Nakajima’s devastating suplexes and stomps were awesome. Satomura’s hellish strikes and nasty counters and cutoffs were even better. Satomura took an insane ring apron DDT bump. She’s like joshi Daniels of mad veteran bumping. This match also contains one of the very greatest high kick counter attacks I’ve ever seen in my life. Also the selling was detailed and careful, exactly what you’d expect from Meiko.

****1/2

Sendai Girls 2015/07/30

Io Shirai & Mayu Iwatani vs. DASH Chisako & Sendai Sachiko

This was a total spotfest that worked so well, and then some more! These two teams did what one might call a stupendous rollercoaster of constant moves, spots, flying all over the ring, etc. It never stopped. But guess what, they did it right! Fucking hell, there was some high-end innovative shit in there. Just a beautiful tag clash that felt like one really large last chapter of some epic All Japan tag from Baba era, and these four ladies did almost everything right, shit just flew so well. I’ve never seen Chisako and Sachiko wrestle before, but after this I feel a sudden urge to track down and check everything they did as a duo. Yes, they were THAT good here!

****1/2

JWP 2015/07/11

Hikaru Shida vs. Arisa Nakajima

Another superb joshi gem from 2015, and I swear I feel like I’m breaking into lucha libre again, because I’ve never really paid proper attention to joshi until few months ago, so right now I’m still in a state of discovering a brand new world that is mostly unexplored, it’s there and waiting for me to reach it. Obviously I know my 90s joshi, but all these new and “new” feds and wrestlers are still fairly new to me. And so far I’m really liking what I’m witnessing, the scene is loaded with great talent, from both newcomers and veteran sides of the fence.

One thing is certain, and this match also proves it – joshi scene works really hard to distinguish their style from men’s. Trust me, you won’t see a work this natural, raw, gritty and full of organic struggle anywhere else in Japan. There are exceptions, of course, such as Akiyama, Miyahara, Mochizuki, Hikaru Sato, few DDT guys, few NJPW guys, etc. But even they can feel very formulaic and restricted sometimes. But these girls, such as Arisa and Shida, they bite, they pull each other’s hair, they kick each other’s noses, they had one of the best ringside brawling sequences of the year, etc. Everything felt natural and they worked so hard to earn every counter and every escape. Shida worked on Arisa’s back section just as relentlessly as you see Roderick Strong doing it. Arisa sold it beautifully. Fuck it, I’m not going any further with trying to sell you on this clash, just watch it and you’re welcome.

****1/2