JWP IN SUMMER 1997:
(June 29th to July 6th 1997)
* Here’s another JWP I just found- the summer sees a pair of shows starring Akira Hokuto and others! Plus a bunch of Candy Okutsu’s “Final Running” series before she retires for the first time!
TOMOKO KUZUMI vs. CANDY OKUTSU:
* Kuzumi’s a well-thought-off rookie champion at this point, while Candy’s in the midcard but just about to retire. Candy’s in black & Kuzumi’s in brown idol gear with lots of fringe.
Candy dominates the rookie to start, but Kuzumi uses speed and keeps Candy on the defensive with stretching. Candy finally catches her with a missile dropkick off a whip and DDTs her into a sleeper for a while. Seven minutes gone and Kuzumi mimics the same missile kick counter, then does a LONG set of rolling butterfly suplexes into a bridge for two. Candy one-ups her on a criss-cross, then counters her counter of the Rolling Germans for two. Candy knocks her to the floor but gets caught building her SmackDown! meter with a springboard enzuiknee and a Bridging German gets two. Kuzumi’s splash hits feet, but she manages a butterfly superplex after they re-set following Candy slipping. Straightjacket German gets two, but Kuzumi climbs and Candy catches her with a Northern Lights Superplex for a double-down- Kuzumi climbs and is caught again, but this time swings behind Candy and hits her top-rope Japanese Leg Roll Clutch for the shocker win at (11:20)- Kuzumi beats the midcarder! A true sign of her forward elevation, and Candy dropping falls on her way out.
Wow what a dull-ass match for the first 7 minutes, lol- TWO SENTENCES cover that entire span as it’s all stretching and slow work until they hit “go” and it’s non-stop big moves for the next four minutes. That bit was pretty good, though Candy has slowed down a lot due to injuries and Kuzumi is still green- they recovered one spot by re-setting and then mostly hit nothing but suplexes until the end, Kuzumi catching the veteran with a rollup to put it, and her, over.
Rating: ** (yeah, fine. Way too long for what they were capable of but it got pretty good in the end)
CUTIE SUZUKI vs. CANDY OKUTSU:
(July 18th)
* Candy’s now in green fatigue-colored gear while Candy’s in white.
Candy attacks right away to start, hitting her run-up missile kick and a plancha before Cutie has her gear off. A dramatic knucklelock leads to the Kick of Fear and stretching from Candy, but Cutie beats her up and sleeperholds her. Lots of stretching, rail-tossing, wasting time, etc., Cutie easily dodging another run-up move, and Candy’s speedy comeback is countered with a German. But Cutie misses a dive and takes a German to all four sides of the ring mats in a fun bit (Cutie slowly being dragged to each end so it kills time), then hits a run-up plancha & Locomotion German Suplexes for two. But she misses a missile kick and it’s back to crabs. Cutie with some light footstomps from the top rope, but Candy catches her with the run-up Northern Lights for two. A pretty great Brainbuster gets two, but Cutie shoves her off the top and hits the Flying Enzuiknee for two. Candy reverses a suplex for another brainbuster, then hits a wimpy rolling sobat kick, but Cutie reverses another to the Dragon Suplex for two. Candy roars back and tries to stop another flying move, but gets shoved off for another Enzuiknee, and another Dragon finishes at (15:26). The two girls tearfully embrace as we’re out.
Holy shit, one of those “let’s play this out for twenty minutes” JWP specials, where you can fast-forward at random and pretty much get a better match (not that *I* would do such things, of course! But you could! I use restholds for typing!). The padding was STRONG here, as they start quick, then descend into half-crabs, and then do this big “they’re down, so I grab them by the hair and try to haul her up repeatedly and maybe pull her to another part of the ring” stuff to kill 30 seconds between moves. Like, the whole match cries out “EXTEND THIS LENGTH!” vs. “I’m trying to kill this person”, so despite the occasional cool move (Locomotion Germans! Run-Up Northern Lights! Brainbusters!) it’s still quite mediocre.
Rating: **1/4 (there’s a good match hidden in there SOMEWHERE, but it’s a great 9-10 minute match stretched out with as much padding as they can make)
A JWP rookie beach interlude! You can tell which ones they consider pretty because they’re in bikinis while the others have shorts and sports tops on. Alas, no Devil MasamI mean how exploitative.
They show clips of a show on the beach- these always look fun. The rules are weird- you have to pin someone THEN throw them in the nearby pool, which means dragging them while everyone on the opposing team hangs on to hold you back. Finally, Devil hits a rookie with a devastating Triplebomb for three and leaps into the pool with her to win.
Then it’s a prelude to the Hokuto match, as we see Hokuto do a Foley-esque walk up the stairs (showing just how brutally she wrecked her body). Then it’s clips from the fantastic ****3/4 Hokuto vs. Mayumi Ozaki match from Nov. 1993 (man I miss that era of joshi so much, lol), then Ozaki running into GAEA and swiping rookies from Chigusa Nagayo, forming OZ Academy with Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima & Rieko Amano. Akira joins GAEA while Ozaki beats Chigusa in a Dress-Up Wild Fight with a chain-wrapped backfist into her Tequila Sunrise. Then it’s Akira yelling and OZ Academy, Chigusa debuting her “Zero” heel persona and the other veterans hashing it out in the ring. Akira had been teaming with GAEA 2nd-year Maiko Matsumoto against various combinations of OZ Academy for months prior- in one with two OZ subordinates, Akira easily demolished an unconscious Chikayo. Another time, Ozaki singled out Maiko and crushed her with a Sunrise.
OZ ACADEMY (Mayumi Ozaki & Rieko Amano) vs. AKIRA HOKUTO & MAIKO MATSUMOTO (GAEA):
* So the feud culminates with Akira & Ozaki leading rookies against each other. Oz is in red/black, Amano’s in a blue & white singlet (looking like a jobber, still), Akira’s in blue/black & Maiko’s in that yellow & brown outfit. Maiko’s still very low-tier- I can’t imagine she has much chance here.
They do a “Lol, Oz is SHORT!” gag to start, but OZ Academy pounces and Maiko takes a horrifying powerbomb bump on the back of her neck because she half-sandbags and Ozaki isn’t strong enough to whip her up all the way. Oz thankfully stalls before going for a one-foot pin so Maiko can roll over, then they do the LCO Pose on her and Amano stretches the back until Maiko hits running attacks. Hokuto hits a backdrop, sharpshooter & STF, then their own LCO Pose, Hokuto yanking the hair every way she can. A long sharpshooter spot sets up Maiko, but she quickly gets her leglock reversed and OZ do a lot of clutch/dropkick spots on her. Maiko wins a chopfest but gets clotheslined down, and drops Amano onto her ass only for Ozaki to drop off the top on HER ass, but Hokuto flies in and has an awkward scrap with Ozaki, ending in Oz’s falling powerbomb for two.
Hokuto with a backdrop driver on Ozaki, but Amano runs in and they hit a Doomsday Device into Amano’s leghold, but Maiko has to save, and hits a gutwrench suplex. The rookies get into a slapfight and scrap to the floor, but Hokuto wipes Amano out with the Tope Con Hilo! The veterans cannonball the rookies simultaneously to kill them, then demand tags- in a funny bit, the girls crawl to their feet holding each others’ hair and the vets just come in and German them at the same time. But Ozaki Tequila Sunrises Hokuto and hit an Assisted Powerbomb on Maiko for the Mandatory Rookie Kickout of a Finisher! Amano hits a superplex, but Hokuto just DESTROYS her with a missile dropkick. She forces a tag and prepares the Northern Lights Bomb, but Amano actually reverses to a butterfly suplex for a near-fall- but Ozaki runs in an urakens her partner by mistake and Hokuto ends Amano’s life with the NL Bomb to win at (14:58). Hokuto & Ozaki do promos and actually laugh and shake hands at the end.
Perfectly acceptable generic tag match that got pretty hot at the end- the mandatory stuff like Rookie Fighting Spirit, kicking out of a “sure” finisher, then the veteran dusting off the rookie with a real finisher while the other’s being held back.
Rating: **1/2 (like a lot of tag matches in this era, it’s under *** but better than **)
Then it’s a clip of Hikari Fukuoka & Tomoko Miyaguchi vs. Devil Masami & Tomoko Kuzumi- Devil mostly dominates with powerbombs on Hikari and no-sells a bunch of missile dropkicks, then a bizarre finish sees Hikari hit a Japanese Leg Roll Clutch for what appears to be three, but the ref waves it off, saying Devil lifted her shoulder. The whole crowd thought it was a three, and Devil INSISTS upon honesty, asking them their opinion, and respecting their answer, leaving the ring when they assure her that it was three.
So that was a night of wrestling, for sure! The JWP special- a show full of matches under ***, lol.