This match makes me, along with many other fans of women's wrestling, wonder why TNA Xplosion is a B-show, relegated to the United Kingdom and the internet and why, oh why, we only ever get matches involving the Beautiful People and Angelina Love on TNA Impact on Thursday nights. A short list of things I noted about the match:
1. They need to turn Taylor Wilde heel, like, yesterday. The girl cannot cut a face promo to save her life, and continually comes off as an unlikable little drip anytime she gets near a microphone and opens her mouth. From mocking Daffney a few weeks ago before their match, to her little 'talk to the hand' moments when discussing her feud with Sarita tonight, this girl was made to be a jerk. Funny thing is, too, that she doesn't really come off like that at all, in other venues like her twitter, but she seems like such a naturally snarky little machine on camera that I can't believe they don't run with that a little bit.
2. Daffney is hilarious. Her character work is almost perfect... the slurry voice, the sort of vague expression and the sense of 'wow, I really am a total psychopath... and I'm really happy with it!' make her totally engaging. I've been a fan of hers for years, since WCW, and don't even mind when I don't get a tweet back cause she gets so many and has had so many knocks on the head, and just don't understand why TNA won't push this girl to the moon as a manager, mouthpiece, wrestler... something. Her new teeny top hat and dress combo was nice, too... the blue, black, her very pale skin and her eye make-up mesh together and give her a sort of ethereal, unearthly look.
3. The match itself was good. Hamada looks as stiff as heck--how can somebody that adorable be that vicious?!?!--and Daffney sells like a champion. I really don't get why some reviewers said this was a terrible match, and am convinced that they are just somewhat prejudiced against women's wrestling or, perhaps, just don't watch the matches and grumble about them anyway.
4. Taz sounded drunk, like he usually does. He does a good job of selling the girls like they're made out of gold, but some of his lines are real groaners (and/or oinkers... I mean, jeez, dude). Although I will always love him for giving us the 'Zombie Hot' moniker, he often just sounds dumb. Don West wasn't much better, though, and either is miles better than most of what we get in WWE, so I won't complain too much.
5. Post match brawl was a little weak, due to time constraints, but I'd love it if this set up a little feud.
Showing posts with label joshi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joshi. Show all posts
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
American Joshi 10: Melina is back! Yay!
Melina Perez has returned to the ring tonight, against the little toasted white girl Alicia Fox, and had the California crowd pretty much eating out of her little hand. Me too, as a matter of fact. With her inky black hair, fiery Latin temper, and the fact that she can be best described by the word "bendy," Melina is one of my favorite ladies in WWE, and I'm overjoyed that she has returned from her injury whole and better than ever.
The match was intense and stiff. The crowed was fully on Melina's side, even rudely chanting "you can't wrestle," at Alicia Fox a few times. I mean it's probably true... she doesn't really have any talent, but it's just not the kind of thing a polite person would point out, you know? Anyway, after exchanging lots of very rough spots, Melina won with her weird looking, flippy, sunset power bomb, the Primal Scream. After a nice loud shriek--the third best in wrestling, behind Your Soul's Tormentor and the Scream Queen herself--the match was over and the RAW women's division was one step closer to respectable... which is one step closer than Wrestlicious wil ever be.
The match was intense and stiff. The crowed was fully on Melina's side, even rudely chanting "you can't wrestle," at Alicia Fox a few times. I mean it's probably true... she doesn't really have any talent, but it's just not the kind of thing a polite person would point out, you know? Anyway, after exchanging lots of very rough spots, Melina won with her weird looking, flippy, sunset power bomb, the Primal Scream. After a nice loud shriek--the third best in wrestling, behind Your Soul's Tormentor and the Scream Queen herself--the match was over and the RAW women's division was one step closer to respectable... which is one step closer than Wrestlicious wil ever be.
Labels:
alicia fox,
joshi,
melina,
primal scream,
third best scream in wrestling
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Joshi 9: Go Hamada! Go Taylor!
After a long-ish (for Impact, anyway) , hard fought match, Hamada-san and Taylor Wilde are the new TNA Knockouts tag-team champions! This match was excellent and Hamada-san's in ring skills are just as good as they were the last time I saw her on TNA TV what... six months ago? Seven? Gosh, it's been a while. I've really missed that fierce little apple cheeked Japanese queen of the ring. My only complaint tonight is that we didn't see her vicious Michinoku driver variation, the Hama-chan driver, but Taylor's German suplex always looks pretty good, and I'm glad to see new and different things happening in the Knockouts division. The only thing really missing is Daffney... I haven't seen her on Impact in several weeks! We need a tiny top hat infusion, STAT!
The Beautiful People segment tonight was good, too. Poor Lacey! She's just trying to be sweet and helpful, but forgot the important lesson that you should never, never, never get between two girls having a cat-fight over 1) a man or 2) a piece of jewelry. Considering TBP view the KO belts as big, shiny hunks of gold jewelry... well... you can see where the might lead to tragedy. I did like seeing Vel Vel run over to aid/comfort her after she got flattened, though, and am looking forward to seeing where this storyline might go in the near future.
The Beautiful People segment tonight was good, too. Poor Lacey! She's just trying to be sweet and helpful, but forgot the important lesson that you should never, never, never get between two girls having a cat-fight over 1) a man or 2) a piece of jewelry. Considering TBP view the KO belts as big, shiny hunks of gold jewelry... well... you can see where the might lead to tragedy. I did like seeing Vel Vel run over to aid/comfort her after she got flattened, though, and am looking forward to seeing where this storyline might go in the near future.
Labels:
hamada,
joshi,
lacey von erich,
madison rayne,
Taylor Wilde,
vel vel
Monday, August 2, 2010
Joshi 8: What a hell of a match!
I feel weird and uncomfortable saying this, but WWE RAW actually featured quite an excellent match tonight on the ladies side of things! The only problem with it came near the end, but that'll come after all the good stuff that I have to say.
Between Gail Kim, Nattie Neidhart and Jillian, I'd say that these Diva chicks need to get on out of the ring before they get hurt. Nattie showed a lot of great, dominant strength and--even though she tragically had to take the pin fall from Alicia Fox--she looked like a queen among women. Gail Kim took the sickest bump of the week against a ring post, and I hope she's okay, but that said something about the absolutely toughness of that young lady. Of course, I shouldn't be too surprised... she was able to hang with freaking Christian Cage back during their days in TNA, together.
The segments best moment, though, came at the very end. While Alicia was bragging about how she dominated everyone, and could beat everyone (although... she doesn't seem to have beaten Michelle McCool or my English muffin, Layla, yet, but whatever), Melina returned to a gigantic pop, disproving the idea that no woman can get over these days, and flattened Alicia with a Primal Scream. We've missed you Meilna, and we're so happy that you're whole and healthy!
Between Gail Kim, Nattie Neidhart and Jillian, I'd say that these Diva chicks need to get on out of the ring before they get hurt. Nattie showed a lot of great, dominant strength and--even though she tragically had to take the pin fall from Alicia Fox--she looked like a queen among women. Gail Kim took the sickest bump of the week against a ring post, and I hope she's okay, but that said something about the absolutely toughness of that young lady. Of course, I shouldn't be too surprised... she was able to hang with freaking Christian Cage back during their days in TNA, together.
The segments best moment, though, came at the very end. While Alicia was bragging about how she dominated everyone, and could beat everyone (although... she doesn't seem to have beaten Michelle McCool or my English muffin, Layla, yet, but whatever), Melina returned to a gigantic pop, disproving the idea that no woman can get over these days, and flattened Alicia with a Primal Scream. We've missed you Meilna, and we're so happy that you're whole and healthy!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Men and Ladies on the Internet 2: Formspring what the hell, now?
There are a huge number of social networking sites on the Internet, these days. Facebook is probably the most popular, now--it has absolutely exploded ever since it was opened up to the general public, and has become almost as annoying as its predecessor, myspace. Livejournal is a great place for the emo among us (if you want a great example check out CM Punk's old lj) and Deviant Art, too, is as much of a dramatic whinescape as it is a place to showcase your World of Warcraft fan-art. Twitter is a lot of fun--and a good way to engage with people in snips and snaps, although not as much as their blogs because it doesn't allow invested discussion--and I like to use it to network with people who share my interest in women's wrestling, both as appreciators and performers.
This networking has led me to an experience with a new website, called Formspring.me. One of the best current performers in female wrestling is the totally amazing Death Rey, Sara Del Rey. Although until recently I had only seen her in a match or two on ROH on HDNet, mostly hanging around with Castagnoli and Chris Hero, and as part of the Four Corners match on the SHIMMER Vol. 2 main event, I became very impressed with Death Rey's blog and twitter feed. Through a little bit of interaction with her, about whey, wheat and hemp protein, I have decided that SDR is a seriously cool chick. I was inspired to look up some of her other matches, considered classics by American joshi fans, and was impressed with those, too, and plan to attend any shows which she works that are within a reasonable geographic distance to my home base.
Most of the questions on her formspring are pretty normal. They are about gossipy stuff, about wrestling matches she likes and/or about music and tv. Some are more personal but understandable, about who she might be dating. Some are... simply incomprehensible or not questions at all. A wide variety of them, however, are crude queries about bra and panties matches and nude photo-shoots. The whole situation seems to be making Death Rey, even a girl as tough as Death Rey, somewhat uncomfortable and I would hate to see it make her less willing to interact with those of us who find her awesome and respect her work. I keep asking myself the same questions that I did about the guy who inquired after (name redacted's) worn panties: who are you, why are you, and which the hell rock did you crawl out from under? Perhaps, in my career, I can do something to teach young men that this is not the proper way to approach a fine, foxy lady-person, or maybe I'm just rage, raging against the dying of the light, as Dylan Thomas would say. Either way, I feel like I'm fighting the good fight, somehow, by at least commenting on all this, and so I'll probably keep doing so. Guys like that just bring you down, though, and make you feel really terrible about the future prospects of the species...
ETA: As of this morning, it's good to see kitty's claws popping out a little more.
This networking has led me to an experience with a new website, called Formspring.me. One of the best current performers in female wrestling is the totally amazing Death Rey, Sara Del Rey. Although until recently I had only seen her in a match or two on ROH on HDNet, mostly hanging around with Castagnoli and Chris Hero, and as part of the Four Corners match on the SHIMMER Vol. 2 main event, I became very impressed with Death Rey's blog and twitter feed. Through a little bit of interaction with her, about whey, wheat and hemp protein, I have decided that SDR is a seriously cool chick. I was inspired to look up some of her other matches, considered classics by American joshi fans, and was impressed with those, too, and plan to attend any shows which she works that are within a reasonable geographic distance to my home base.
Most of the questions on her formspring are pretty normal. They are about gossipy stuff, about wrestling matches she likes and/or about music and tv. Some are more personal but understandable, about who she might be dating. Some are... simply incomprehensible or not questions at all. A wide variety of them, however, are crude queries about bra and panties matches and nude photo-shoots. The whole situation seems to be making Death Rey, even a girl as tough as Death Rey, somewhat uncomfortable and I would hate to see it make her less willing to interact with those of us who find her awesome and respect her work. I keep asking myself the same questions that I did about the guy who inquired after (name redacted's) worn panties: who are you, why are you, and which the hell rock did you crawl out from under? Perhaps, in my career, I can do something to teach young men that this is not the proper way to approach a fine, foxy lady-person, or maybe I'm just rage, raging against the dying of the light, as Dylan Thomas would say. Either way, I feel like I'm fighting the good fight, somehow, by at least commenting on all this, and so I'll probably keep doing so. Guys like that just bring you down, though, and make you feel really terrible about the future prospects of the species...
ETA: As of this morning, it's good to see kitty's claws popping out a little more.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Joshi 6: Toyota-San and the Japanese Ocean Suplex for the win
The incomparable joshi Manami Toyota hits the Japanese Ocean throw on the much larger Aja Kong. Ignore the comments below the video by dipsticks who've never bumped in their lives (I have during folkstyle and Greco matches, on a regulation mat in practice and competition; suplexes/suplays hurt and that trajectory can't be faked) and just concentrate on the amazing grace with which Toyota-San arches; it's like poetry in motion.
I post this today because, according Sara Del Rey's blog, Toyota-San will be appearing with Chikara soon! I agree with SDR on this; if you love joshi, especially, you must be there. I'd ride a donkey if I had to! Or walk. Or let the donkey ride me. I don't care; Toyota-San is just that impressive!
I post this today because, according Sara Del Rey's blog, Toyota-San will be appearing with Chikara soon! I agree with SDR on this; if you love joshi, especially, you must be there. I'd ride a donkey if I had to! Or walk. Or let the donkey ride me. I don't care; Toyota-San is just that impressive!
Labels:
aja kong,
CHIKARA,
holy crap,
japanese ocean suplex,
joshi,
manami toyota,
sara del rey
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