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Post by Control21 on Dec 29, 2021 22:11:28 GMT -5
Hopefully I'm not the only one who thought this is worthy for a nomination but this was really good. I haven't seen their other matches yet, but that's something I'll change soon. This was a fantastic main event and the match structure was pitch perfect. I didn't feel anything was overdone here, and Syuri and Utami both gave us a bit of everything. Matwork, nice grappling, striking, high spots, and some pretty good psychology as well. The selling was good too, and I can see why Stardom/Joshi fans love these two. I've been a fan of Syuri for a while and I plan on following her title reign closely. Not sure how to rate this match yet, it's somewhere between ****3/4 and ***** for me. Possibly a legit MOTYC?
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Post by Cap on Dec 30, 2021 11:46:47 GMT -5
Planning on watching this later today. I loved their first match and thought it was a slam dunk ***** MOTY until it stayed a little long and meandered a touch for my taste in OT. Even still, I am really looking forward to this.
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Post by kas on Dec 30, 2021 12:15:19 GMT -5
2nd. I thought this was as good as their match from earlier this year.
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Post by Grimmas on Dec 30, 2021 23:24:33 GMT -5
I had there June match on my GME list and I thought his match was better. More focused and with a great finish. Easy nom.
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Post by elliott on Dec 31, 2021 0:51:33 GMT -5
I liked this more than the June one. Instant classic.
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Post by Cap on Dec 31, 2021 10:39:56 GMT -5
I would agree this is better than the June match. I'm not sure how much better at this point. I feel like I am probably as low as I am ever going to be on it at this moment and I have it top 10 on the year. This feels like it will age well. It is much more focused and balanced. Def worth considering.
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Post by fxnj on Jun 13, 2023 0:58:25 GMT -5
You people hand out star ratings like candy. This was good, but nowhere near *****.
I agree that this was more cohesive and overall superior to their June match, though it lacked some of the traits that really grabbed me about that match. Firstly, the dynamic isn't quite as compelling for me where we get less of a beatdown by Syuri's kicks and more of a focus on Utami's strength vs. Syuri's submission work type deal. I also really liked the thing they did with bodypart work in the first match where Utami gets lucky going after Syuri's leg, attacks it for a bit but ultimately has to drop the strategy when Syuri comes right back into the match. They didn't go for anything creative like that here, mostly confining the body part psychology to the stretch run with Utami's bad leg. That was still good, but not quite as clever. The transitions felt a bit easy compared to the first one, though that may mainly be due to this one lacking anything super brutal like the first one had with Syuri taking a bump on the back of head on the ring apron. I guess I should probably be glad they didn't try the Misawa/Kobashi approach of trying to make every match more brutal than the last for the sake of being able to still walk when they retire. The conflict of wanting great matches but not wanting to see performers hurt themselves too much.
With the negatives out of the way (and those are really only negatives in comparison to the first match, not in general), the match delivers where it counts, that being giving these two a compelling stretch run. Having watched two Omega/Naito matches today and gotten my fill of 2010's NJPW for the foreseeable future, it's very welcome to come back to wrestling where the performers actually care about long-term exhaustion selling and aren't willing to just throw everything aside for the sake of getting their shit in. I was impressed by Utami in particular with how her selling progressed throughout the match. Even the Epic Elbow Exchange, of which there appears to be an unwritten rule stating that it must happen in every post-2000's match where the performers put in effort, seemed far more spirited here compared to how I've seen it done in NJPW and had an actual winner. The actual near falls they did felt well within the proverbial HP bars of the performers and it never felt like they were doing kick outs just for the sake of it. I could feel when they did the actual finish that was going to be it, and that's how it should be. Strong motivational speech from Syuri at the end as well.
I said it before in the review of the June match, but I am really digging the pure sports presentation on these matches. It's surprising to me that these Stardom title matches have the most sportive presentation I've seen in modern wrestling, given my perception of joshi was mainly built on late-2000's NEO and Oz Academy matches that had often had shitloads of bullshit. I also appreciate the effort put into the each performer's wear and think Utami has the best look I've seen on a wrestler since Yoshiko Tamura's ace run, except she wrestles in a way that's actually interesting for me. Interested to watch the 2022 big Stardom matches.
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