January 10, 20169 yr comment_5719945 Her work really only came as a tag team with LCO, but she had some crackers. Don't think she has enough overall for a Top 100, though.
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945596 LCO is an all time great team and Mima was the star. She is another person who's late 90s & early 00s work deserves a closer look. Not just the LCO stuff most would likely be familiar with. But there's some excellent singles work against Takako Inoue, Misae Genki, Yoshiko Tamura, and I always enjoy it when Shimoda & Etsuka Mita match up against each other. She's not as polished as the best Joshi workers, but she has great charisma and is a standout character.
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945608 LCO were initially super exciting when they showed up in ARSION but I ended up being quickly fed up with their act. I also recall her having some long singles matches in NEO that were really hard to get through. There may be some hidden gems in her AJW work. Really great worker in small doses, though
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945633 2001 has not been kind to Shimoda. LCO is still dominating but the act has become extremely tired with the crowd brawling, weapons shots, LCO mostly winning. I was looking forward to the NEO matches in the Violent Storm tournament but they in general left me pretty cold and overly long.
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945638 LCO peaked from 97 to 99. After that point they still had some really good matches but they had lost their uniqueness and the smaller crowds also hurt the heat they were working for, not to mention both girls were now physically past their prime, after the grueling and taxing 90's working the hardest style on the planet. Shimoda really came into her own I'd say (from memory) in about 93-94, before that point Mita (who invented the Death Valley Driver, that should never be forgotten) was the superior worker to me. So that's 5-6 years of her being a great worker, with a peak at the end. LCO vs HAMAKino in ARSION is probably the last ride and their best match ever. In 1999 she also had another bloodbath of all bloodbath with Ozaki in single (it may have been at the second Oz Academy show !). Mima Shimoda, top tier working heel ever.
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945639 LCO had a handful of classic matches but the average LCO match is unbearable. Shimoda was good at what she did, but she wouldn't rank very high on my list of the 100 best Joshi workers let alone the 100 best workers of all-time.
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945641 That old running gag of me pimping a worker only to have Dan doing a run in and just say "Nope !"
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945643 I actually wrote it before I saw your reply. I think their peak ran until 2000, btw. The big AJW cage match from that year is one of the best matches of 2000.
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945645 10 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said: I actually wrote it before I saw your reply. Doesn't matter, what actualizes in reality is what matters. 11 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said: I think their peak ran until 2000, btw. The big AJW cage match from that year is one of the best matches of 2000. It's funny as it's one I don't think I have ever seen, because I did not care for buying tapes from AJW at that time (the Maekawa push was a legit big time turn off). I seem to remember there was an infamous match in a rainstorm too at about the same time (which probably wasn't great but had hype because of the sheer insane context)
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945650 We're talking about this match right: Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda & Kumiko Maekawa vs Kaoru Ito, Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi 11/23/00 ? It's on YouTube. Really awesome stuff.
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945727 5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said: LCO had a handful of classic matches but the average LCO match is unbearable. Shimoda was good at what she did, but she wouldn't rank very high on my list of the 100 best Joshi workers let alone the 100 best workers of all-time. Revisiting them after 20 years, I'm back in the "average LCO match is reliably entertaining at worst in addition to the handful of classics" camp. I totally understand how its an act that can wear on people over time, but it never got there for me. I'll watch them against any opponent. If you asked me to watch LCO vs Wrestler X & Wrestler Y, I dunno who Wrestler X & Y would have to be for me not to watch to watch the match. El-P, The 11/23/00 match Kadaveri mentions is spectacular. Definitely check that out.
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945733 32 minutes ago, elliott said: Revisiting them after 20 years, I'm back in the "average LCO match is reliably entertaining at worst in addition to the handful of classics" camp. I totally understand how its an act that can wear on people over time, but it never got there for me. I'll watch them against any opponent. If you asked me to watch LCO vs Wrestler X & Wrestler Y, I dunno who Wrestler X & Y would have to be for me not to watch to watch the match. El-P, The 11/23/00 match Kadaveri mentions is spectacular. Definitely check that out. I recall you saying during the first GME poll you were no longer a fan of Rage in a Cage. Is that still the case?
April 10, 20214 yr comment_5945749 I haven't rewatched it since then and since revisiting a ton of classic Joshi.
May 20, 20232 yr comment_6004659 Highly probable 75-100 pick for me. She is similar to Scott Steiner of all people in that the bulk of her case was made with fairly constrained tag team wrestling. Having said that, she does have some noteworthy singles work (e.g., the Ozaki match from 2/1999 El-P mentioned) which, alongside a direct comparison of individual performances, helps her edge out her partner Etsuko Mita for consideration in a project like this.
June 3, 20232 yr comment_6005273 LCO was awesome, however her singles work isn't as good but I can see her being featured in the bottom of someone's list.
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