Joshi Spotlight: LLPW’s Six-Woman Street Fight

LADIES LEGEND PRO WRESTLING:
(Feb. 15th 1998)
* WOO IT’S TIME FOR MORE LLPW! Which is like… my LEAST favorite of all the joshi promotions, but still! Completion! At least to say I watched some of their stuff! This one is billed as “LLPW vs. Guren-Tai” as Eagle Sawai’s heel stable blasts forth. And it’s also Eagle combining her stable with those of Shark Tsuchiya & Lioness Asuka (from FMW & JD’, respectively) to form a SUPER stable! So we see matches from all three of them tonight, culminating with a 6-Woman Street Fight in the main event! And HOLY JESUS that one is a spectacular mess of non-stop action, and a total must-see! Like I was dreading watching this one, but that match alone is a reason to watch this.

We start off with a TV studio interview with Yasha Kurenai, hidden behind dark shades and a dark sweater.

MIHO WATABE (LLPW) vs. MAIKO MATSUMOTO (GAEA Japan):
* It’s Rookie Mayhem! Maiko is still pretty new and is developing some power-themed offense (so I hope you like atomic drops). I don’t know squat about Miho. She’s… jesus christ, she’s *4’9*!!?! She actually has a decently long career (1996-2005 as Baby-A) and is of similar experience to Maiko here. Maiko’s in yellow & brown, and Watabe’s in frilly orange.

We start fast, with Watabe bouncing off trying running attacks and Maiko powering her down. Watabe tries to counter a cross-armbreaker attempt with a combination of realistic-looking leverage and wild baby-scratching, which is pretty funny. Watabe FINALLY rolls out of it and throws some weak shots trying to keep Maiko on the defensive and trying a keylock, then a fun bit as she cartwheel dodges past Maiko’s wild double-chop and does some goofy Popeye Punches and then charges right into the chop, getting too ahead of herself. She manages a step-up victory roll for two, but tries it again and gets electric chair’d down. Maiko throws legdrops to the belly, but misses a running one and Watabe hits two missile kicks for two, unable to hold her down. She flies off the top, but ends up on Maiko’s shoulders- a waterwheel drop crushes her for two. She lands on her feet from a gutwrench suplex attempt and scores a flash-pin for two, tries again and nearly gets killed, but manages to whirl into a rana for two (Maiko did a good job saving what could have been a disaster, basing herself for it). At a loss, Watabe charges in, getting dropped on her ass for two, then two atomic drops get two (!! FINISHER-KILLING!! They been watching too much AEW!). Maiko is running outta shit, and puts Watabe up top, getting caught in a sunset flip, but they each reverse pin attempts until Watabe charges in again like a dumbass and gets killed- a big Backbreaker to Saito Suplex crushes her at (6:06), Maiko winning a pretty dramatic contest.

Shockingly good for what it was- two comparative rookies doing simple stuff. It had smart psychology, with Maiko being super big and tossing the tiny girl around, but Miho using her speed and height to her advantage by dodging and sticking & moving, until she got ahead of herself and accidentally charges right into Maiko’s frontal arc- work your angles! Watabe is quite good for her size, able to wrestle like a tiny person adequately, though her pins are TERRIBLE- she often “flops” beside her opponent and scores a weak cover even if she was full-sized (which she ain’t). And Watabe has all this pluck and flash-pin goodness but can’t hold the bigger girl down, so keeps getting careless and just charging in when she shouldn’t, which keeps catching her- good finish with all these flash-pins being believable (it’s not like Maiko is unpinnable at this point) and Maiko luckily getting out and finally being able to drill the fight out of the tiny opponent.

Rating: **1/4 (shockingly good for their experience level)

NORIYO TATENO vs. KEIKO AONO:
* Goddammit, who’s this? *researches* oh, I’ve seen her only once before, I think. Aono is an LLPW original, also having wrestled in WAR, and kept going until 2018 going in various companies. Tateno was of course one of the Jumping Bomb Angels, and is an LLPW kinda/upper-mid wrestler who can sometimes main event? She’s in purple, as usual. Keiko’s in yellow/black.

Keiko starts aggressive with a very “early Kaoru Ito” vibe, battering Tateno but getting caught by the cagey veteran always dodging or countering in the corner with a clothesline. She drills Keiko with a great high knee, then does a hilariously lazy kneedrop, actually halting her running mid-way to do a little walk-up and drop. Tateno hits a surfboard but gets dragon-screwed, Keiko working her bandaged leg, but Tateno starts throwing shots to the face and the Kick of Fear brings Keiko down. Tateno hits the bridging German but misses a Flying Knee by a mile and Keiko takes out the knee again. Tateno takes shoulderblock spam into a senton, doing the wimpiest bumping possible, but Keiko fires off a running powerslam and Tateno does the “JB Angel Bridge-Out” and locks her up with a small package (having to reposition when Keiko rolls over) for three at (4:23 of 11:30 shown).

Tateno is interesting to watch at this point- her prime was ten years earlier and she’s this interesting combination of “cagey veteran” and “meh- don’t wanna work TOO hard” as she’s cleverly dodging the fiery rookie and then just doing the simplest stuff to counter and slowing the pace down, picking and choosing when to do big stuff instead of just going for the big moves, then taking some VERY weak bumps. To be fair, bouncing up from shoulderblocks and then awkwardly having to get back up to take another one is kinda weird and looked like she was deliberately standing up just to get hit again. At least she got a clever “lol, work smarter, not harder” ending to cap off her veteran status, doing a rollup right out of a pin attempt to catch Keiko when she was trying to be all aggressive.

Rating: *1/2 (we don’t get a lot, but it was fine)

“The Bloody” is an interesting worker around this time- I don’t have a lot of JD’ stuff but she was good as a rookie and pretty much developed instantly into “perfectly acceptable filler wrestler” despite her inexperience.

SHARK TSUCHIYA (FMW) & THE BLOODY (JD’) (w/ Goons) vs. HARLEY SAITO & MIZUKI ENDO (LLPW):
* LLPW loyalists take on part of the mass heel stable, as Shark teams up with JD’ rookie The Bloody. Harley was recently LLPW Champion so she’s still a big deal, and Endo is a subordinate. The Bloody’s in green & black, Shark’s in bright green & black, Harley’s in a simply hideous blue/green/white atrocity, and burly Endo’s in black & orange with her hair in a top-knot. Nothing short of a miracle can get more than ** out of Shark, but who knows what the future holds here?

Endo & Bloody get into a scrap immediately, each refusing to give an inch, but Shark cheats to help out her partner. The Bloody’s already a great little shitbag, biting and scratching away and fighting dirty, but more importantly, acting like she’s having the time of her life doing it. Now THAT’S a heel! The heels double-team Endo relentlessly, taunting Harley on the apron and enjoying themselves while Endo looks defiant. They do multiple LCO poses with their goon helping, Harley getting sick of it and tossing Bloody, but the heels just grab chairs and double-swat Endo coming off the ropes and choke her with it. A slam & second-rope senton on the chair has the referee refusing to count, so the Bloody has to resort to (UGH) a LEGITIMATE MOVE, in this case a butterfly suplex, to score a two-count. She punches and chokes the shit out of Endo with a chain and Shark taunts Harley by holding her hand juuuuuuuust short for a tag, and a backdrop hold gets two for Bloody.

Endo FINALLY dodges a lariat and tags Harley, who gets a mother of a babyface run with lariats and wheel kicks for everyone, but Shark just breaks a double-team by lariating both down and taunting. Harley counters with a stunner & wheel kick, but Bloody breaks up her keylock with a chair, then hits Rolling Germans for two. Harley dodges a flying blind senton and Endo nails a backdrop driver & Vader Bomb for two- Shark saves, then beats on Harley when she throws running shots, but Harley stops a double-team and wheel kicks Shark again, leading to Endo setting up a superduperplex on Bloody, then a tombstone into Endo’s flying splash and Harley’s flying headbutt. Shark again saves, but splats on Bloody trying to break it up, and Harley throws on a Half-Nelson/Chickenwing combination to submit The Bloody at (12:43). Shark tosses Harley and gets into a fight with half the LLPW locker room until too many of them hit the ring and they’re run off. An amused Shark is in the back drinking a beer afterwards, like “Hey WTF?” about it.

A base-simple Heels vs. Faces match right out of the 1980s, with Endo taking, Harley getting the hot tag, then the heels alternating scoring counters and Endo gets some of her shine back with some revenge beating, but notably only on The Bloody and not Shark. Shark’s mannerisms and character stuff was all fine, which is good for a mid-length match like this. Harley’s stuff was so restrained (like 8 minutes features Endo) that it felt like she was hurt or something, but she got a ton of cool-looking moves off and hasn’t seemed to have lost a step. The Bloody really impressed me for her experience level, fitting some sort of “Junior LCO” tier, already having a lot of higher-level moves down as well as the all-important heelish delight in causing pain.

Rating: **1/2 (good, basic wrestling- nothing fancy but it told the most basic story well and that formula WORKS)

LIONESS ASUKA (w/ The Bloody) (JD’/Freelancer) vs. CAROL MIDORI (LLPW):
* It’s the age-old “Interpromotional Story” of “Main Eventer vs. Person who has no chance but can be elevated by jobbing while also giving us a sacrifice to the other company” match, top JD’ wrestler Lioness Asuka coming in to beat on Carol Midori, then an LLPW midcarder. Carol’s in bright-ass pink & red, while Lioness is in black & silver.

Carol starts with an early lead thanks to her speed, but Asuka’s “slow & steady” keeps countering her with kicks and armbars, then of course good down-home cheating via The Bloody, hilariously throwing her at & suplexing the rookie on Carol. The ref refuses to count, distracting Asuka enough for Carol to headscissor her, but Asuka handily reverses and hits a big backdrop suplex and some one-hand choking, making a show out of disrespecting the referee with sarcasm (“CHOKE-u?”) and counting along with her before releasing. The Bloody comes in for a double-team off the top rope, then Asuka does another choke and the scorpion deathlock, assisted by Bloody. Asuka keeps grinding Carol down and kicking the shit out of her, and the giant swing gets two, followed by the mandatory chair-beating in the stands.

We’re clipped to back in the ring, where Carol makes the mandatory comeback after dodging three chairshots, hitting a big dropkick off the chair. Missile kick gets two, and she does a (very slow, arduous) roll through over the ropes to hit a springboard dropkick. But Carol moonsaults onto feet and takes a double-team chairshot duo, then a piledriver, Samoan drop & backdrop-to-sit-out-powerbomb… for two! Carol attempts a rana counter and gets powerbombed, but charges up to the top and super ranas Asuka for two. Carol avoids another powerbomb but gets kicked in the head attempting a drop-behind and is nearly done- but she stuns Asuka with the Kick of Fear for a desperate two-count, only to get… tripped up and dragged out by Bloody. Oh, you bitch. Asuka grabs a chain and bludgeons the hell out of Carol with it and hits a wheel kick and backdrop superplex for a REALLY close two, but gets careless with a lariat and nearly rolled up to end it. Carol’s about cooked, so Asuka drills her with that lariat, and a Ligerbomb… again gets two! Okay, fooled me on that one. Asuka just gets like “YEAH OKAY!” and lifts her and holds her WAY up, finishing with a full Ligerbomb at (13:46).

About as good as one person kicking the shit out of another one for ten minutes is going to be, especially with help from her goon. Asuka carried Carol to a REALLY good midcard match, here, unfairly dominating the whole thing, but making Carol look like a badass for kicking out of all that shit- two finisher-tier surges and Carol STILL won’t die. Very impressive considering Carol’s offense is borderline “basic joshi stuff” with only dropkicks and ranas done in her favor.

Rating: *** (very fun considering it’s so one-sided and Carol only manages token comebacks)

SIX-WOMAN STREET FIGHT:
SHINOBU KANDORI, RUMI KAZAMA & YASHA KURENAI (w/ the LLPW locker room) vs. GUREN-TAI (Eagle Sawai, Michiko Nagashima & Sayuri Okino, w/ Lioness Asuka, Shark Tsuchiya, The Bloody & some Goon):
* Oh man- six women in a STREET FIGHT. This’ll be fun to recap. So it’s Eagle’s heel stable (basically her and two scrubs) against LLPW’s top wrestler, Rumi (the booker and a semi-upper main wrestler) and Yasha (a normally shitheel-brawler type but more of a babyface than Eagle’s crew). Eagle’s in black/pink, Nagashima’s in street clothes, Okino’s in pink & black, Kandori’s in her standard singlet but in pink (COLOR CODING!), Rumi’s in white tiger-stripes and Yasha’s in red pants with a white shirt.

It’s a clusterfuck to start with everyone brawling around, and manages to score an anklelock on Okino. Nagashima saves her using the shinai (wooden stick) repeatedly and Eagle hits a SUPER Vader Bomb for two, then a lariat, and when Kandori armbars out of another, in comes Nagashima with the shinai again. Eagle’s uranage sets up Okino’s flying splash for two, then a Triple LCO Pose & Nagashima’s chainshots hurt Kandori even more, but she escapes and Yasha lights everyone up with shots. Sadly, they mis-time their own Triple LCO Pose because everyone’s out of position. Rumi works Nagashima over and Yasha adds her 2nd-rope legdrop for two, but she gets caught and Okino works her. Everyone freely interferes and cheats, but Eagle body attacks Yasha down and they brutalize her in a variety of double & triple-teams, Nagashima biting her and charging a knee into her back. But Yasha blocks a chair and starts cracking Nagashima with it, having her in a heap on the mat before long. Haha, I love that she’s like “You’re trying weapon-based cheating on ME? BITCH I PERFECTED THIS YEARS AGO!” and just beats her into a puddle of goo. She hits a Guillotine Legdrop, but now SHARK hits the ring and drags her out.

Soon it’s a 5-on-3 beating as The Bloody is out there too and everyone’s all over the arena fighting- Yasha takes two bumps on a flattened table, but catches a charging Michiko with a waterwheel drop in a great reversal (and nasty bump onto the table), then chokeslams her on it! She sets the table up with great timing, but the heels interfere and she takes a Thesz press off the top through it herself! Rumi saves the pin, but Nagashima crushes Yasha with a flying senton for two. Kandori interferes to buy Yasha some time, but Eagle stops the tag and a shinai bludgeons Yasha, and Nagashima punches her with a chain and strangles her all over the ring, doing a ton of different chain moves before hauling her over to the apron so she can blade, leaving blood all over the mat. Shark adds a barbed-wire shinai and Eagle sprays mist, and Nagashima does the “suck up the blood and spit it” act (though she just kinda puts her teeth against the cut and spits). Yasha’s just a MESS, blood dribbling all over the ring, as Eagle lariats her with the chain, and Eagle’s ThunderFire Powerbomb hits… and then Noriyo Tateno strolls in and BOOTS THE REF to save! haha, work smarter, not harder!

Okino with a choke in the corner and they grind away on Yasha still, but Rumi comes in and tornado DDTs Eagle and beats the other two with the chain, bringing in Shark. But in comes fresh Kandori with some murder! Eagle chokes her from behind with the chain… but she’s judo-tossed! JUDO BEATS CHEATING, ASSHOLE!! Nagashima halts her with a chair, but Kandori just uses it on Eagle and they do a lariat/German via Rumi, then both of them pull the chain around Eagle’s neck from each side while Yasha triumphantly returns with a MASSIVE chairshot and the referee openly blades Eagle on camera (dude don’t ZOOM IN the camera like that!). Yasha then comes in and starts cutting Eagle’s hair off with scissors! The red dyed bits! Eagle manages to double-lariat the vets and staggers over to the corner with this amazing lurch in her step to sell the damage, but Yasha bolts in and it’s shinais for everyone! An assisted powerbomb by Kandori is stopped by Guren-Tai, so she settles for a choke-sleeper to set up Yasha’s Guillotine Legdrop- two! Everyone charges the ring and Yasha puts her submission finisher on Eagle dead-center, but in comes Shark with the bat! Then Lioness Asuka interferes and they double-team Rumi wth a lariat and powerbomb her on a chair.

Nagashima comes in with the scissors for some payback on Rumi, but Kandori disarms her with an armbar and Rumi hits an enzuigiri on Okino, but Nagashima pounces on her with a backdrop hold and everyone’s dumped to the floor- The Bloody handcuffs Yasha to the bottom rope while Rumi takes a beating on the floor (kind of missing the peak, here) and Eagle just sails in off the apron from off-camera with a body attack! And then they tie Rumi’s legs with a chain and hang her upside down off the top rope! Rumi, badly beaten, eats three chairshots in a row and an oil can, then Okino’s perfect plex… gets two! She kicks out of Eagle’s lariat, too, but Yasha stops a double-assisted powerbomb, Eagle doing the move herself until Yasha nails her. Quadruple Assisted powerbomb! But Yasha saves again! Rumi’s put up for Eagle’s One-Armed Powerbomb finisher… but rolls her up for two! Okina, the freshest, pounces with a flying stomp and Northern Lights suplex for two-counts, but takes a big swing with the barbed-wire shinai (after a ton of great theatrics to call attention to the spot) and misses, so Rumi punches her for the 1…2…3 at (25:41). Holy jesus- after all that, the rookie gets careless and loses it for her team.

Dude, this was AMAZING! Just non-stop action with a great, manic atmosphere. Constant movement and nobody just “Sits there” for any amount of time, and every time things go one way, the other side charges the ring to keep up this intensity. And the babyfaces fought as hard as the heels, tearing in with weapons for some spectacular pin-breaks and brutality to get even so it wasn’t just a “Heels torture virtuous Babies” match. The only major issue is it just kept GOING, and they probably extended it 4-6 minutes longer than they should have- as soon as they started beating on Rumi on the floor it got a bit tired. Like Yasha’s entire heat sequence was incredible and made her look SO tough and defiant, and the heels SO dirty and rotten, but then Rumi just had to get in her own too, and that was too much (also she was probably supposed to blade as well but couldn’t get it going). It’s frustrating to see a match that was hitting ****1/2 territory if the stuck the landing just lose that.

Nagashima really impressed me here- she was the workhorse of the match, with Eagle largely sitting on the apron and saving herself for the big sequence in the middle, so Nagashima was stuck doing nearly EVERYTHING. She can do some impressive work, like with the chain- a lesser worker would just punch Yasha in the forehead with the chain like 18 times in a row, but Michiko pops her with it ONCE, then chokes her, whips her around by the neck with it a couple times, facecrushers her on it, etc. She VARIES her offense and so it looks a lot more impressive, inventive, and interesting! Fans would have started ignoring the shots eventually if she was just doing the same shit. Eagle was also much better than I usually see from her- her selling of being strangled with a chain was great, and then she starts staggering and lurching into her own corner, collapsing before Yasha can even deck her with the shinai. Yasha’s bloodbath selling was great, while Rumi was her usual forgettable self. Kandori was oddly barely even in here (was she injured?).

Rating: **** (just this spectacular, manic, bloodbath match with everyone fighting with sheer hate and great performances from almost everyone)

Anyways, Eagle talks some shit on the mic after the match and that brings in Asuka & Shark to assault her. In the post-match in the back, Yasha lies there dead of blood-loss (I mean, probably) while Kandori is covered with green mist (lol we missed some stuff in the scrum on the floor).

All in all, a shockingly good show from what’s usually my least-favorite of the joshi promotions- everyone going all-out, even the ROOKIES working their asses off, and a fantastic violent main event.