GAEA JAPAN- EDGE OF THE HEART:
(Aug. 30th 1997)
* WOO TIME FOR MORE GAEA JAPAN! They tend to dominate the YouTube presence of joshi in 1997 even though AJW’s stuff is far more interesting (if only for backstage stuff). This is part of a one-night tournament of unusual tag partners- the descriptions say “MIX”.
SONOKO KATO & CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA vs. SAKURA HIROTA & RINA ISHII:
* This is two 1st Generations against the greenest rookies, so this clipped match is gonna be an easy win. Kato’s in blue, Chikayo yellow/blue, Sakura pink & Rina orange.
We start with Kato decking Chikayo by mistake, leading to Sakura’s FLYING ASS and then a NASTY sandwich missile kick that looked absolutely brutal to take. Kato saves and we’re clipped to another FLYING ASS missing and Chikayo hits a Flying Stomp for the easy pin at (1:04 of 8:25 shown).
MEIKO SATOMURA & MAKIE NUMAO vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU & SUGAR SATO:
* These are mostly 1st Generation, with Numao being in the weird start of the 2nd.
Numao pummels Sugar with a flying enzuigiri, but Uematsu flies onto her and Meiko has to save Numao from the figure-four. But Sugar reverses a clumsy victory roll, then hits a heel hook and Meiko can’t save- Numao taps at (0:54 of 18:05 shown).
SONOKO KATO & CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA vs. MAIKO MATSUMOTO & HIROMI KATO:
* Sonoko & Chikayo take on a duo of more recent rookies- Maiko is just at the “next tier” but Hiromi is super-green.
Hiromi gets her knees up from a double-team and the rookies do their late-game moves (Maiko’s inverted atomic drop to Hiromi’s torture rack)- Chikayo won’t tap but gets slammed on the mat and a leapfrog legdrop requires Sonoko to save. Maiko reverses Chikayo’s sunset flip to ATOMIC DROP SPAM, the atomic drops Sonoko and Hiromi racks her while Maiko flies onto Chikayo and Hiromi slams Sonoko onto her- great double-teaming, rookies! But Hiromi can’t block Sonoko right and the pin fails. Clipped to Chikayo missing a Flying Stomp but sunset flipping out of another Maiko atomic drop for a close two, and a powerslam for the same. Maiko reverses another flash pin for a heart-stoppingly close count (the front row marks out for how close it was). Maiko is crushed and desperately goes for a whip, but of course Chikayo catches her with a Rana at (2:56 of 13:32).
SONOKO KATO & CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU & SUGAR SATO:
* Chikayo & Sugar are the regular partners, so this is interesting. Everyone should be a good bit tired with these long-ass matches.
We start off with Chikayo and Sugar getting into a SLAP FIGHT, which gets so epic they start winding up their slaps and ultimately do a DOUBLE-DOWN off of stereo slaps and omg this match is **** already. They actually sell this like MDKs were struck, and Toshie takes advantage but Chikayo recovers immediately and she & Kato copy the Sugar/Chikayo “fireman’s-flying stomp” move. Sugar saves and Toshie won’t go up for stuff, but gets armlocked and then eats a missile kick/German combo for two as she is getting her ASS kicked. Double-facecrusher gets two and FINALLY Sugar flies in with a missile kick to set up Toshie’s Northern Lights suplex and Kato has to save. Kato cheats to boot Sugar off the top, but Sugar knees her in return and the Oklahoma stampede gets two- Kato bridges out, but Chikayo accidentally runs across her while she’s doing it, leading to laughter from the crowd and Kato’s mega-selling the ribs. Double-slingshot elbows get two on her, as does a double missile dropkick. Sato misses her run-up back elbow and Kato actually psyches her into grabbing a kick for the dragon screw only to roll her up, getting two. Toshie flies off into Chikayo in the background as NOW Kato’s kick is caught for the dragon screw, and they reverse full nelsons until Sugar hits a full Dragon Suplex for the win at (6:29 of 20:16).
Damn, that was a really, really manic match- the last 6 minutes makes it look like it was a **** or so affair overall, but of course we miss 2/3 of it. I liked Kato psyching Sugar into her usual reversal, thus tricking her into a rollup, but Sugar just got the real thing later and even finished the match. The only iffy bit was the “OMG I’m dead” selling being immediately followed by tearing around the ring as if nothing had happened.
Rating: ***1/4 (hard to rate when we don’t see the beginning at all, but showing the final six minutes is kind of humorously what a lot of post-1998 GAEA looks like to me, lol)
WCW WOMEN’S CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE CONTENDER MATCH:
TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. SUGAR SATO:
* And then, IMMEDIATELY AFTER THAT, Toshie & Sugar have to go at it in a bout to determine the next challenger for the WCW Women’s Cruiserweight Title, currently held by Yoshiko Tamura!
Probably exhausted, they charge in and scrap like banshees anyways, just throwing hands and pulling hair while the ref just stands there. Toshie reverses the Oklahoma Stampede to the Japnese leg roll clutch for two. She tries more pins and then kicks Sugar off the top, but gets angered when she runs away to avoid a plancha then dodges a cross-body, and a missile kick hits her for two. Sugar tries her flying back elbow but gets jump-kicked in the back and the two just flop into a variety of near-falls as they’re completely wiped. Toshie gets her own missile kick, and another to the back gets two. Sugar is too beat to go up for anything, so Toshie is frustrated and just charges into two dragon screws, then the worst uraken ever (camera angle reveals it utterly misses), and Sugar lifts her up to do a full, PROPER Uraken, and that gets the pin (!) at (4:28)! Sugar wins and challenges for the belt!
This is actually not clipped, and the match is appropriately short, as it’s playing off all their prior matches already. They “sold” the exhaustion rather well, as even simple moves had them both in double-downs, unable to capitalize, and they were running outta crap to do. Over-relying on moves was a killer, as Toshie just charges in one too many times and then Sugar beats her with an URAKEN of all things, adopting the move Ozaki swiped from Aja Kong.
Rating: **1/2 (very good for such a short match, sorta piling on the previous matches’ worth of stuff into a finale here)
CHIGUSA NAGAYO & AKIRA HOKUTO vs. TOSHIYO YAMADA & KAORU:
* !!!!!! Holy biscuits!! It’s the four top stars & elite veterans of GAEA all in one tag match! They typically don’t shove all the starpower in one match like this, but now that they’ve got the rookies at a higher level we’ve got something. Though the YouTube clip is only 10 minutes long. Chigusa’s in silver/red, Hokuto’s in blue, Yamada’s in yellow & KAORU’s in white.
Yamada & KAORU divebomb Chigusa/Akira before the bell, hitting a ton of big moves and KAORU ranas Akira for 1, then hit stereo sleepers- Hokuto still has her gear on, while Chigusa drags KAORU from the floor to the top rope despite having the hold locked in, then dumps her and leaps off onto Yamada to break up her hold. KAORU springboards back in onto Chigusa and they fight to the floor again while Yamada spams backdrop suplexes and hits the Flying Enzuigiri into the Reverse Gory Bomb… Chigusa rushes in to break up the pin! Chigusa tags herself in and hits a German, but KAORU springboards to stop the Running Razor’s Edge and hits a Moonsault press to the Brainbuster for two.
KAORU signals the end and hits the Michinoku Driver- Akira saves and gets kicked down, but Chigusa hulks up and destroys both opponents until Yamada brings her down with an enzuigiri, but double-clotheslines them down and Akira hits her spinkick & a neckdropping backdrop on KAORU- Yamada yanks her off, but Chigusa clotheslines her, piledrives her, and superplexes Hokuto onto her. Ligerbomb gets two, and Chigusa suplexes both opponents for what’s supposed to be stereo flying moves, but Chigusa appears to “nope” out of it and lets Hokuto do a flying cannonball to KAORU alone, so Hokuto now HOLDS Yamada so Chigusa can suck it up and hit one! Crowd dug that and the interviewer guy LOLs. Chigusa’s “Hey- I DID IT!” celebration on the mat is what makes it. Akira hits a fisherman’s buster, but KAORU backdrops Chigusa and Germans Hokuto to stop the momentum, but Chigusa backdrops her brain-first and Hokuto adds a Tope Con Hilo to the floor so Chigusa can finish with the Running Powerbomb on Yamada at (7:42).
Okay, this was a wild, “All Action” match, and looks a lot more like GAEA’s stuff would later look- ignoring the weardown stuff and other early-matchery and going straight to big moves and near-falls for ten minutes, powering up and no-selling at random. It’s a STYLE and certainly skips out on the stuff the fans don’t care about, while possibly saving cardio time (no need for restholds if you go only 10 minutes) but I don’t necessarily want EVERY match to look like this. Particularly the whole “stuff matters until it doesn’t” stuff, as it ignores prior damage and makes moves meaningless as it’s like 50/50 if a move is going to be sold in a couple minutes or not. And because these matches are so stuffed with moves and the occasional big spot that they always get a positive score, but I feel like there’s a PEAK to them.
Rating: ***1/4 (hard to hate that much good stuff with hard work and great application put in, but I don’t want ALL wrestling to look like this)