If you missed the first four parts of our wrestling Secret Santa (concept discovered by us on Voices of Wrestling) then follow the links below
Nerd giving: It’s me, it’s me its JC…H.
Nerd receiving: It’s his WedHead2Head comrade, it’s Brum!
Match:Arisa Hoshiki vs Tam Nakano - Wonder of Stardom Championship, 16th June 2019.
JCH: This is my match of the year, I'm interested to see how it goes down with someone else who may not know the story behind it, but I was clapping in my living room watching this.
Brum:My NWW Secret Santa couldn’t have been much better this week as the Xmas gift I was hoping for was something I’ve always wanted to watch but haven’t made time to.
My joshi knowledge is pretty rubbish. Last year, I watched Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue and loved it, but that’s nearly 25 years old now. After having the pleasure of watching Meiko Satomura earlier this year, I said to myself that I should watch some more current joshi but still haven’t got around to it yet.
As for Stardom, I’m a big fan of Io Shirai & Kairi Hojo/Sane’s work in NXT but haven’t seen any of their historic stuff. I’ve also seen a bunch of gifs for people like Mayu Iwatani & Momo Watanabe but not seen a full match.
That’s a boring 3 paragraph way of saying that I’m looking forward to this.
I’ll probably get this completely wrong, but judging by their pre-match promos, Arisa is the current champ and comes across as a nice lady & Tam is some Delphic enigma; appearing jealous of Arisa but without clear motive. Arisa seems equally perplexed.
Tam is out first to some utterly bonkers music. She is pretty aloof. Arisa is out next and is quite feathery. Her music is much more standard joshi fare. That weird pervy bloke who runs the company holds up the title. They do a silent photograph shot which is quite strange. The crowd then claps and we’re ready to go.
Arisa comes to the centre of the ring to for a handshake, but Tam stays in her corner & is having none of it. They stay in their corners for 15 seconds or so, just dead-eyeing each other before sleeking out like dual Serengeti predators. This is tense as fuck.
The next minute is still very cagey. A few attempted lockups but they’re all withdrawn from. Both women still in measuring up mode. Tam eventually gets Arisa to the mat for a guillotine attempt. Arisa escapes to gain control.
The match stays on the mat early on with multiple counters not really separating the two. The next submission in earnest is a brutal looking seated cross-legged single leg Boston on Tam. Tam makes the ropes though.
Now standing, Arisa is still on top & charges at Tam in the corner but misses. Tam manages to apply a dragon sleeper on Arisa whilst sitting on the top turnbuckle! She looks like she’s going to rip her head off.
Arisa is knocked to the outside & Tam follows her with a top rope crossbody. Tam gets her back in the ring and beats her up for a bit before applying a sick looking inverted figure 4. Arisa eventually makes the ropes but is really selling her knee.
Tam targets the knee for a while until a charging attack is cut off by an Arisa boot to the midsection. We get some back & forth between the two until Tam transitions from a rolling armbar into a kneebar. Nice. She is hooking the ankle & really wrenching both the ankle & the knee.
Arisa makes the ropes again but before she has managed to rise, Tam hits her with a charging knee to the head. Tam goes to the top rope, but Arisa cuts off her intended offence & brawls with her on the turnbuckle. The shots are eclipsed by a nasty headbutt from Arisa.
A boot to the head knocks Tam to the apron. Arisa runs at her & hits a Meteora on the ring apron! Tam is somehow with it enough to sneak from underneath Arisa to hit her with a German on the ring apron!
Arisa makes it back into the ring and we get a strike war where Arisa comes out on top. A missed top rope move from Arisa leads to Tam hitting a spinning axe kid to her head followed by a nice top rope knee strike.
A couple of vicious kicks to Arisa’s poor head gets Tam a 2 count. Tam gets right back on it, but Arisa ducks her next kick & twats her with a roundhouse. This is followed by a beautiful jumping top rope kick from Arisa. This gets her a 2 count of her own. A running enziguri & top rope reverse splash gets her another.
The pace is ramping up as it’s Tam’s turn for a roundhouse kick which she follows up with a running knee. 2 count as Arisa makes the ropes. A dragon suplex gets her another two. Tam comes off the ropes & Arisa Hoshiki hits her with one of the best running knees I’ve ever seen. The crowd liked that.
This is followed up with a sick standing knee and a question mark kick. Arisa is knackered though & by the time she makes the cover, it’s only enough for a 2.
It takes a while for them both to get to their knees but when they do we get a forearm war which drags them to their feet. Arisa gets the best of it with [wait a second - this is ridiculous, I’m rewinding this!] TWENTY-TWO CONSECUTIVE FOREARMS TO THE HEAD. It’s not enough to take Tam down because she’s the love child of Tomohoro Ishii & a Nokia 3310.
Despite that ridiculous onslaught, Tam boots Arisa in the head! Whilst Arisa is on her knees, Tam kicks her in the head eleven fucking times. Arisa rises to her knees because she’s the love child of Katsuyori Shibata & Chumbawamba.
Arisa then hits Tam with another one of those obscene knees she does. This is followed with another knee which is so terrifying it should only be shown to HP Lovecraft’s biographer.
Tam gets to her feet because she’s nailz (not the 90s wrestler) and straightaway gets hit with another question mark kick! Tam is out on her feet. Arisa has very little left in her but sees Tam is out so just charges at her with all her weight. On the ground, Arisa hooks the leg and gets the 3! That was brutal.
Post-match:Tam is dead. Arisa gets presented with her belt and a massive trophy. I’m not sure but I think it’s the Stardom 2019 Award For Most Head Smashing. Tam gets to her knees and Arisa tries for the handshake again. Tam ignores it and throws her hands to Arisa’s face. She is too exhausted to do anything though and falls back to the match. They get to their feet and we finally get the handshake!
Summary:I think I need to go for a Horlicks and a little lie down. That was intense. It started slow and ramped up into a literal skull crushing finale. Fantastic match & would recommend checking it out. Though I’m now worried that my Christmas season will be filled with PTSD from watching Japanese women getting their heads knocked off.
Prediction:If it isn’t JCH, I’ll review the 1991 Royal Rumble match next week.
Nerd giving: Matt Connolly
Nerd receiving: 90’s Mike Knight
Match:Invisible Man vs Invisible Stan - Joey Janela’s Spring Break 3 - April 2019
Matt: Wrestling should be fun and I really hope that my pick personifies that. A white hot babyface like Man Versus a despicable heel like Stan. It's short and sweet and I hope whoever gets it loves it.
Mike:So, I was lucky enough to get to go to a few GCW shows at the quite awesome White Eagle Hall in New York during Wrestlemania week this year. These cards featured stipulations including the following:
• No-Holds-Barred
• Fans Bring the Lego Deathmatch
• Seven Out Of Thirteen Falls
• International Inter-species Food Fight Invitational
• 60-Second Iron Man Match (complete with 5 seconds overtime)
• Five O'Clock Somewhere Last Person Standing
• Yuletide Death Match (in April)
• Lumberjack Swamp Monster Elimination
• A 65-person Clusterfuck Battle Royal
• The Invisible Man vs Invisible Stan
I witnessed all but the last two, and for this year’s inaugural Secret Santa Nerd Watch Wednesday, I’ve been handed what should have been called The Invisible Battle!
A lot has been said in recent years about what actually constitutes wrestling, how far is too far, should women be wrestling men, did Space Monkey really just say that? GCW love to change the game, bend the rules, and bring us fans whole new spectacles and experiences. During the 6 shows I saw in 3 days, every person in attendance bought in, cheered, booed and grimaced through it all, and surely that’s what it’s all about? If one promotion defines us here at WSBF, one could argue that it is Game Changer Wrestling.
This is a “brother vs. brother” grudge match after the Invisible Man was killed by his brother… only to rise from the dead! First out, from Parts Unknown, is one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted and The Invisible Man’s brother, Invisible Stan! The capacity crowd do not like him and boy do they let him know it! He’s giving the ref some shit, but also here from Parts Unknown is The Invisible Man, who gets a hero’s welcome.
The ref, Bryce Remsburg, interrupts and announces the only way he can officiate this match is with Bad Boy Vision (a pair of Joey Janela’s sunglasses), and the crowd pops as hard as you can imagine! We get some vaguely ultra-violet lighting, which the crowd complain about, and we’re off! Collar and elbow tie-up with Man overpowering Stan into the corner and the ref breaks it up at 3. Holds exchanged, and we get our first pin attempt, leading into EIGHT revolving pin attempts and a stand-off that gets eaten up by the GCW faithful.
Trading forearm shots with each other now, before Stan pokes Man in the yes and the ref is livid with this and rightly so! Stan calls for chairs and Man agrees! This is going to go so wrong! No good can come from this! Ooooh, they want chairs to sit on and square off. Man is pissed that he’s given a dodgy chair, so it gets replaced. Big shots back and forth, leading to a blood stoppage, pissing off the fans. But Man wants to finish this and stops the ref throwing up the X!
Both men to the outside as they battle their way through the crowd and onto the balcony! They’re still fighting all the way up, and every official is out from the back! We cut to the balcony and they’re both teetering on the edge, surely they won’t go this far? They’re family, dammit! They both fall all the way down! Noooooooo! Are they dead? No! Commentary wondering who got the worst of that, which may actually be the poor fans they landed on! Someone get us a doctor!
The ref chases them back to the ring and we get a 2-count. The ref lays down the law, and Stan hits him from behind with a cheap shot! We need a new ref, but some guy called Kikutaro comes out and puts on the Bad Boy Vision shades! Whose side is he on?! He hits Stan with a chair and a DDT, rouses the ref for a veerrryyyy slow count, but the shoulder is up at two! Stan hits the invader and he’s outta here. Man hits a Superplex from the top and gets another 2-count. They get up and Man manages to launch Stan into the table! What an impact! The Invisible Man covers, and we get one, two, THREE! We get the announcement and Bryce Remsburg raises The Invisible Man’s hand and bows before exiting, leaving Man to celebrate finally getting the revenge he so deserves.
So, after all that, who really won? We did. The fans. It was different, it was unique, but most of all, it was fun. I implore you to check out this match and Game Changer Wrestling as soon as possible. You can thank me later.
Prediction:"I have no bloody idea who picked this, so I'm just going to go with Luke as I don't really know him and if I'm wrong he can't be too upset with me...?"
Two more satisfied customers leave us with a perfect 11/11 and with only resident Grinch Shafi and the always controversial former Wrestling for Attention star Rob Armstrong’s gifts yet to be given surely nothing can go wrong…
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