April Hunter in Japan

[frankp316]

April Hunter's account of her trip to Japan is on the Glory Wrestling site. It looks like she had a great time and I know you will all enjoy it. Who do you think was her tour guide? None other than Sumie Sakai.

http://www.glorywrestling.com/News/20021113.asp

[kkeller]

That was a good read Frankp316 thanks for posting it. I've misjudged her anyone who is a Ayako Hamada fan is okay by me.

[Dr Feelgood]

When you get the Babel translator to translate the kanji for "Mima Shimoda", you probably do end up with "beautiful and mean"
BTW, dutch chocolate is no good, try swiss or belgian!

[frankp316]

Obviously, April Hunter can cause a commotion just by walking down the street especially in Tokyo. A few months ago April flunked a WWE tryout. She could have gotten down on herself but instead is determined to improve as a wrestler. I think working with Sumie Sakai when Sumie was in the US a few months ago had a lot to do with it. Sumie seems to have that effect on everyone. She's a classy lady. April knows that her bombshell look is always going to get in the way of her wrestling ability. If she continues to improve, she'll do just fine. Though many US womens wrestling fans resist joshi simply because it's in Japan, most of the women wrestlers collect and watch joshi videos just like we do. They know it's the best and some girls have picked up moves just from watching videos.

[Dr Feelgood]

What is indy US women's wrestling like?

The women wrestlers aren't the only ones to collect and watch Joshi... How many times have we seen cruiserweights imitate and blow Manami Toyota spots?

[frankp316]

Several all womens feds have tried to launch in the last couple of years but none have had the money to get it together. So it really depends on where you are. The Northeast US tends to be more active. That's where April Hunter is. She lives in Massachussets. Sheldon Goldberg of the NECW is the one who brought Sumie Sakai to the US. Here in Toronto, the Apocalypse Wrestling Federation is home base for one of the best indy wrestlers anywhere in the Fabulous Firebird Phoenix. She is the Glory Wrestling Champ and will be defending the title next week vs Marcela Mercedes from Cincinatti here in Toronto. Since you're in Chicago, you should check out Crystal Carmichael & Mia Martinez. Both are excellent performers and Mia uses the Queen Bee Bomb as a finisher.

[Dr Feelgood]

Thanks for the info, Frankp316!

[JadohJT]

At the moment, I have only seen a few US Indy womens matches from New England Championship Wrestling, Ring of Honor and Kiryoku Pro (the womens wrestling sister group of Mike Quakenbush and Reckless Youth's Chikara Pro). Mercedes Martinez vs Sumie Sakai from NECW 6/21/02 and Little Jeanne (aka Sweet Destiny) vs Sakai from Kiryoku 6/28/02 are the only ones that I really liked. Sakai vs Martinez from NECW 5/10/02 was ok. Sakai vs Simply Luscious from ROH 6/22/02 and Alexis Laree vs Allison Danger from ROH 11/9/02 (which I saw live) were not that good at all. I am currently waiting for delivery of tapes featuring "Fabulous Firebird" Phoenix of AWF in Canada (who Frank has pimped at other places for a while) in NECW, Mercedes Martinez in NECW and Jason Knight's Assault Championship Wrestling and Amber Holly & GeeStar compilation tapes from Carolina Wrestling Federation (I forgot the url, sorry). There is a promotion called PGWA that is an all-womens group, but their tapes cost too much ($30 for a 30 min. tape WTF?).

I would suggest going to GLORY Wrestling, the Little Jeanne Yahoo! Group and the PGWA Yahoo Group to find out more about US indy womens wrestling.

Jeffrey

[frankp316]

Yeah, I sure do pimp for Phoenix and will continue do so so.LOL I was at the Phoenix vs Sumie Sakai match here in Toronto and both ladies put on a tremendous show. After wrestling Sumie at the Kiryoku Pro show in Allentown, Jeanne said she wanted to wrestle her again. It was the best match Jeanne had in months. I'm very reluctant to buy videos from any of these indy feds. Some are too expensive but even the ones that aren't are marred by poor production quality. None of the reviews I've read have convinced me otherwise so I'll continue to buy joshi videos because I know what I'm getting most of the time. Good to see you on this board, Jeffrey.