Korakuen Hall has featured a lot of great tag matches over the years, but not a lot of ones where someone gets thrown off the goddamn balcony!
AJW TWO DAY RIOT:
(June 18th 1997)
* It’s time for more AJW! However, much of this show is missing from YouTube, but at least I got the old 3WA Tag Title match from my Tomoko Watanabe spotlight! And that one’s an all-timer tag match that establishes the threat of current LCO, as they lay waste to the Tag Champions and one of them even falls off the balcony of Korakuen Hall! This is the day after the preceding show I reviewed, meaning some of these people are putting on ****+ matches two nights in a row. There’s also one hell of a sell-job from Manami Toyota as she’s brutalized by Yumiko Hotta & Kaoru Ito, then fires back with some ridiculous potato shots as SOMETHING is definitely going on.
It’s important to note that by this point, according to Evito-X, the talent hadn’t been paid in at least a month. We’re not long from the bankruptcy here- about two months, and they start losing wrestlers before that. So this is one of the last big “Full AJW Roster” big shows left!
The Other Matches:
TANNY MOUSE d. MIYUKI FUJII (5:20): The comedy wrestler beats the baby.
MISAE GENKI d. YOSHIKO TAMURA (10:32): The “next generation” rookies continue to level up.
MOMOE NAKANISHI & YUKA SHIINA d. NANAE TAKAHASHI & SAYA ENDO (14:00): The “Give the rookies some experience” match. I feel like Momoe vs. Nanae happened a LOT in these years.
KYOKO INOUE & AJA KONG d. TAMAFUKA (Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa) (5:09): … what? The former & current Aces take on the undercard tag team? And just crush them? Seems to me like making it “almost competitive” and longer would be better than just annihilating your next generation of wrestlers. According to CommissionerBockwinkel this was often done to split up a tag team.
ALL PACIFIC TITLE (Decision Match):
TAKAKO INOUE d. TOSHIYO YAMADA (15:08): Takako wins back her title, which she’d won in late ’96 before jobbing to Kyoko to form the “Triple Crown”. So we’re back to where we started. She’s a solid “secondary title holder”, at least. I can’t imagine many people thought Yamada was winning this- she’s almost too “safe” an opponent for this bout. Particularly since she’s moving to GAEA Japan on July 13th.
THE DESTINY WARS:
MANAMI TOYOTA & MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. YUMIKO HOTTA & KAORU ITO:
* So it’s a big bout of AJW’s stars of the preceding years (Toyota & Hotta) and their partners, the stars of tomorrow (Yoshida & Ito). Ito especially is getting the Rocket Push this year and Toyota’s kinda being phased down, so let’s see! Toyota was apparently hurting during this one, and you can tell by the big forehead bandage (remember, LCO tore her to pieces literally yesterday) and bandaged shoulder. Ito’s in the white gear with fire (I’m still not used to her with awesome looks), Hotta’s in black, Yoshida’s in the white & light blue and Manami’s in black. Mike Lorefice went **** on this.
Manami cheats to help out Yoshida, then starts tearing at Ito’s hair and stretching her out like an asshole, so Hotta comes in and kicks the bejeezus out of her… and Manami fires right back (man, check some of those potato punts to the head, lol)! And THAT gets a reaction, as arrogant heel Manami is Best Manami! Hotta responds by bludgeoning the absolute shit out of her- Manami comes up looking like she has PTSD, but tries acting tough and eats the Rolling Kick. Ito with the half-crabs (I know, I’m as surprised as you), hanging on for one on each leg, then annihilates Manami’s back and stomps on her head and running dropkicks her shoulder, completely squashing her. Manami’s “selling” is dynamite as she looks agonized when Hotta comes in and kick-demons the shoulder, too (note Yoshida coming in and getting swatted in the thigh for interfering). Manami even gets a pop for “Fuck YOU!” bridging out after a piledriver! Hotta drills her down with elbows to keep up the slaughter, but Manami springs to life with screaming hairpulling, and actually gets Hotta down enough to just stomp the hell out of her head! The ref’s panicked “DUDE, WTF?” as he tries to pull her off of manically crushing Hotta’s skull is terrific.
Yoshida’s in with a cartwheel handspring elbow & run-up cross-body for two, hits a figure-four, and of course here’s a bleeding Manami in with a flying splash for revenge. Crowd loves that. Yoshida works the leg, even stopping a kick comeback, and Manami hits two missile kicks and the octopus stretch! But Hotta’s too healthy and Manami too weak, and soon Ito bashes away and hits her corner senton for two. They screw up the Manami Roll (falling backwards) and Yoshida hits stomachbreakers for two. Rolling cradle from Manami, but she’s German’d off the second rope and eats Stomp Spam for two. Ito misses a Flying Stomp and HERSELF gets German’d off the second rope- a head-splattering Moonsault gets two. Manami missile kicks Yoshida by mistake, and Hotta hits the Super-Shooter Cross-Armbreaker then kicks Yoshida coming off the top and tries one on HER, but Manami interferes and Hotta has to splatter Yoshida with the Rolling Kick out of the corner for two in a great spot. Tiger Driver- Manami saves!
Yoshida counters Ito’s uranage twice for two, then they dodge Ito’s dive so she nails Hotta- Run-Up Plancha to both by Yoshida and the Running Springboard Plancha by Manami! Stereo Flying Headbutts into La Majistral on Ito- two! Ito shoves Yoshida off the top and hits two Flying Stomps- Manami saves! … then missile kicks Ito in the spine when she tries a follow-up, and Yoshida Majistrals her again and Hotta has to save. Super DDT by Yoshida- 2.7 as Hotta’s tied up! Air Raid Crash (basically a Somoan drop here)- Hotta saves! They try to single out Yoshida, but Manami flies in with a double-missile kick- Ito catches Yoshida with the Super Fisherman’s Buster- Manami saves! Great camera angle of her running in from the background there. Ito finally lands her own Cross-Armbreaker and Yoshida taps at (22:11), pretty outta nowhere. Manami’s “Freedom Force” stable (consisting of Manami, Yoshida, Ito, Mystique, The Blob, Pyro & Destiny) finally split up after the match, not that I’ve seen any reference to it in a year. Yoshida seems particularly broken up about it, though.
Yeah, this was pretty kick-ass and just kept getting better and better. Manami was a MESS, in reality and in “kayfabe”, so that was threaded into the match, and her sloppy move application didn’t really hurt things because it kinda fit the story, as she’s practically slumping around while bleeding. Still the match had a lotta mistakes- Ito falls taking the Manami Roll (Kyoko/Aja she ain’t) and Yoshida drops her out of what was probably a Doomsday thing. But it’s stiff as all hell (Manami & Hotta are just potato-ing the shit out of each other in there, greatly assisted by Manami’s bleeding) then they start firing on all cylinders in the final minutes, as everything after the Germans out of the corners is awesome, as everyone’s throwing out potential finishers and counters, and they sell the desperation of trying to break the tags.
Rating: ****1/4 (really awesome match overall- Manami taking that horrible beating and then roaring back, then the endless counters from her team while Hotta & Ito just kept coming at them)
WWWA TAG TEAM TITLES:
TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS:
THE U*TOPS (Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa) vs. LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita):
* And now we have the renewed MAIN EVENT incarnation of LCO, and we have the “Final Stage” of the ’90s of Joshi, as they’d be main eventers for years after this. LCO are now in their full-bore wild costumes you often seen on Google Image Search, with cowboy hats and geisha gear with stuff hanging everywhere, in addition to PASTEL-COLORED STEEL CHAIRS~~, while Tomoko is dressed like Shredder and Kumiko like Rocky Balboa. This is wild.
Shimoda’s in the red & black “main event” version of her gear, Mita’s in black & pink, Kumiko’s in a turquoise get-up that’s a combination of “Idol Skirt” and “Kick Demon pads”, and Tomoko’s in a funny white & black super-tassled outfit, looking like an indie comic version of Kyoko Inoue.
FALL #1: LCO completely brutalizes Kumiko to start, countering martial arts with insanity and Greco Roman choking. Kumiko fires back with some kicks on Shimoda but Tomoko gets the best reaction for just avalanching into the corner at full speed. She tries a resthold and so Mita just whips a pink chair at her from off-screen- LCO rules. The U*Tops are bludgeoned and strangled in the crowd and the U*Tops are bleeding five minutes in. Tomoko threatens to bring a chair in to counter Mita’s, so Mita drops hers and demands Tomoko does the same… then Shimoda wallops her from behind when she does. Lariat counters the DVD but she runs into a Blazing Chop and Shimoda’s German gets two, but Mita pink-chairs Shimoda by mistake- Tomoko goes up, but misses and eats a Tiger Suplex for two. She avoids the Death Lake Driver (Tiger Superplex) and they hit a Doomsday Device Thesz Press for two! SCREWDRIVER! Mita breaks it up, but a lariat and second Screwdriver get the three (8:36 of 9:02 shown). Hell of a first fall- *** all by itself! And the champs take an early lead, contrary to expectations!
FALL #2: Tomoko actually looks more disheveled, but Shimoda slaps her awake and she hits a brutal lariat with the “desperate pin” that nearly gets three! Kumiko tries restholds, but LCO uses the “assisted chest kick” spot… but with a blue chair. I love how Kumiko is treated like she’s a physical marvel, but LCO just bite and strangle their way out of all her stuff. Mita shreds her and Shimoda brings in a pastel BATTERING RAM, and the Assisted Plancha & Mita Dive lead to LCO tearing apart the entire ringside area and throwing GUARDRAILS into the ring, powerbombing Kumiko on a stack of chairs and doing the “Shawn Michaels Ladder Drop” with a guardrail onto her from there! Mita deals with Tomoko, but Kumiko gets FIRED UP, and divebombs Shimoda for the ground & pound, wiping her out while the frantic ref tries to drag her away… leading to the “Kicking Too Much Ass” disqualification at (9:14). Yes, LCO threw half of goddamn Korakuen Hall at her and she gets DQ’d for punching? Complete nonsense and clearly there to justify a fall while protecting them. Just job her to the guardrail spot!
FALL #3: Shimoda’s now bloodied and beaten to shit, but the U*Tops are pissed like you’d expect, and Shimoda collapses on a whip and flops around, taking an Ax Kick that Mita barely saves her from. Mita has to chairshot Kumiko, then Tomoko, then hit a DEATH VALLEY DRIVER on her, just to take the lead again. Shimoda then grabs scissors and digs into Tomoko while Mita carries off Kumiko for an ass-kicking all over Korakuen, leading to the most insane spot I’ve ever seen from Joshi- she drags her to the upper balcony, tries to throw her off, then ACTUALLY FUCKING DOES, Kumiko taking a 12-foot drop straight down onto the floor. Jesus fucking Christ. Shimoda merely settles for piledriving Tomoko on a table.
Shimoda tosses a chair as Mita is now strangling Kumiko with a giant rubber hose that she threaded down to the floor, but Tomoko catches Shimoda in the Screwdriver. No ref! Mita saves with a chair just before the three. Mita tosses chairs, but misses and does the greatest dragon screw legwhip bump ever, just corkscrewing around and screaming in agony as the injured leg is hit with a figure-four. Kumiko, still selling her head, scores a HUGE running face kick for two. Shimoda flies in with an off-camera missile kick to slow her, but Kumiko knocks Mita all over the place with more lethal shots and climbs… but Shimoda catches her with the Death Lake Driver! She grabs Tomoko while Mita finishes with the DVD (7:31 of 8:29 shown), LCO scoring their first-ever WWWA Tag Team Titles! LCO get awarded the tag titles in a ceremony while a furious Tomoko keeps trying to attack them, then cut a great promo in the back, with Shimoda posing like a queen bee despite caked with her own blood, while Mita is glazed with “biggest workout ever” sweat, looking like the idol of all idols. Absolutely tremendous.
This was three falls of mayhem, with a very good “they pull out a win” match to start with the U*Tops, then LCO dominating the second with restholds, bitchiness and finally extreme cheating, and then ending with the completely wild stuff, with Mita having to save Shimoda from Kumiko’s assaults, then committing homicide to pull out a win. The second fall ending with punches seemed like total bullshit considering Shimoda used SCISSORS and drew no DQs, never mind all the other stuff, but I gotta think dumping someone off the balcony of Korakuen is one of the craziest bumps I’ve ever seen in wrestling. Kumiko’s kick surge at the end was tremendous, with Mita throwing her head around violently with every shot- LCO’s selling was so perfect here, acting like the U*Tops were just so physically superior, so they had to cheat to win. It was interesting how you can see Kumiko’s rookie nature because she’s barely in it, but she’s used perfectly, selling most of the second fall and being totally justified in losing to the death-drop and a wicked double-team of LCO’s finishers.
Rating: ****3/4 (completely wild match that makes the best possible use of time, giving nearly thirty minutes of all-out action with the “resting” well-timed, one “Iconic Spot” with Kumiko’s mega-bump, and LCO scoring a win due to being so insanely nasty)