Joshi Spotlight: Hiromi Kato

GAEA Japan helpfully color-coded all their wrestlers, especially in the beginning of their careers (where they wore Arena swimsuits). This helps the generic kids with same-y movesets stand out from each other. Hiromi Kato, today’s Spotlight star, is on the left in the black uniform. Sakura Hirota (pink) and Rina Ishii (orange) are her partners.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- HIROMI KATO:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’5″ 143 lbs.
Career Length: 1997-1998

-Yes, it’s another “Short Bio Week”, with HIROMI KATO of all people getting one! Hiromi, much like Maiko Matsumoto before her, has the ignominious honor of debuting as a good-sized wrestler who was turned into a Powerhouse-Type by GAEA Japan… but was still a jobber because she was a rookie, so you mostly just saw her hitting power spots on people before getting crushed. The Class of 1997 wasn’t any better than the Class of 1996 at GAEA, and suffered similar fates- they couldn’t get ahead, and weren’t nearly as good as the first class (which included future stars like Meiko Satomura, Sonoko Kato, Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato), and they eventually retired early. Kato in particular has a career lasting only a single year, debuting just before the start of Year Three and retiring at the start of Year Four.

Why a bio on her? Well, I wanted to do more GAEA stuff on the short-lived scrubs and haven’t seen enough of the longer careers of the successful ones to properly assess them as a whole yet.

Kato had a decent look (though it’s funny because she looks big in GAEA but was normal-sized compared to AJW’s standard only a few years earlier) and could hit some power stuff, though obviously didn’t have time to develop. She would hit backbreakers quite often as her “definitive move” (GAEA was big on training their rookies to have unique offense early on, to shake up the card openers), and in her debut, already used a TORTURE RACK of all things, even on a big-ish opponent.

CAREER TRAJECTORY:
-Hiromi Kato debuted for GAEA Japan on Jan. 19th 1997, jobbing to Bomber Hikari in less than four minutes in Bomber’s final wrestling match. All GAEA kids were given single-color swimsuits to start out, Kato earning a black one. Only a month into her career, she and Sakura Hirota publicly join Mayumi Ozaki’s heel stable OZ Academy, in one of those “oh, poor Chigusa- she put all this effort into her rookies and they betray her” incidents. That said, I never once see Hiromi with the OZ crew after this.

She jobs out in a bunch of tag matches, many of considerable length, losing to teams like Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato a bunch. She loses in some “Shoot Style” matches to KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada, top veterans in GAEA, and then starts jobbing to Maiko Matsumoto (from the prior year’s class), then loses to the Class of 1995 girls in matches under 3 minutes! In a notable one, Meiko beats her in a tournament’s first round in only 52 seconds.

Hiromi’s 1998 isn’t much better- she manages to last almost 12 minutes with the veteran Yamada in a singles match, then nearly the same with KAORU, but then she & Maiko team up and lose to Toshie Uematsu in a handicap match of all things. I have Sonoko Kato beating Hiromi in only NINE SECONDS, then Maiko beating her in only (2:09). She lasts less than four minutes against Maiko another time, and ends her career with a couple tag losses and then loses to Sugar Sato in a tournament’s first round in (4:01) for what looks like her final match ever.

Like Maiko, I’m not sure why Hiromi quit, but given how there was a lack of forward progression at the bottom of the card, I can see why.

MOVESET:
Torture Rack (seriously, that’s almost it)

THE MATCHES:

BOMBER HIKARI vs. HIROMI KATO:
(Jan. 12th 1997)
* … okay, who’s this one? ANOTHER black-clad GAEA rookie, meaning we might have lost the last one. No, Chihiro Nakano sticks in wrestling until 2000. Dunno why another black Arena swimsuit got used. This is actually the FINAL MATCH of Bomber Hikari, at least according to Cagematch, meaning we dump her early. She’s in blue here, looking like an LLPW wrestler with this complex design.

Bomber clotheslines Hiromi down right away, but the kid actually hefts her up into a TORTURE RACK of all things. Bomber gets a good powerslam reversal and uses headbutts- Hiromi gets fired up a lot but eats a flying splash, getting a good reaction for the kickout. Hiromi hits ANOTHER torture rack, but has to drop Bomber, who fires back with body attacks and a backdrop suplex into a one-armed powerbomb for the win (3:24). Kato got a bit of a push in terms of her power (you don’t see a lot of rookies hauling up veterans like that), but only makes it to 1998 before retiring.

Rating: * (very basic rookie/veteran match, albeit with an extreme amount of power from the kid)

CHIGUSA NAGAYO, AKIRA HOKUTO & HIROMI KATO vs. MEIKO SATOMURA, TOSHIE UEMATSU & SAKURA HIROTA:
* A bizarre trios match, this one features the two top stars in GAEA teaming up with their greenest rookie (Kato, in black) up against a rookie squad- a top 1-st year (red Meiko), a secondary 1st year (green Toshie) and another green-ass rookie (pink Sakura).

Chigusa quickly beats up Meiko to start, hitting a backdrop driver- funny bit as Meiko’s partners come in and clubber her with a cartoonish frenzy to break up the pin. Meiko is powerbombed, but springs back with a cross-armbreaker instantly- she tries for more but Chigusa suplexes her & Toshie at once. Akira comes in but gets tagged and the kids hit their signature strikes (Sakura’s ass, Meiko’s windmill punch & Toshie’s backflip kick-off), but Toshie takes a vicious backdrop suplex onto her head. Toshie tries to chase Akira up, but Kato hoists her into a torture rack and the vets tee off on Toshie in that position. Another rack has Sakura knock them over into a near-fall, and then Sakura uses SQUIRREL TACTICS~~ to avoid everyone’s attacks, then starts slapping her ass like a goof until she hits a FLYING ASS ATTACK to knock out Kato for the pin (5:03 of 17:18)!! Yes, the rookies beat two gods and a rookie just because of this. Funny how that psychology works, because in the West this would 100% be the veterans just slaughtering the kids but for a fluke.

Rating: *1/2 (what we saw was fine and quite fun)

AKIRA HOKUTO & MAIKO MATSUMOTO vs. SAKURA HIROTA & HIROMI KATO:
(June 1997)
* Another “Hokuto Demolishes Jobbers” match, with her teaming against GAEA 2nd Generation kid Maiko against Sakura & Kato, who both joined OZ Academy months ago. Hokuto’s in red, Maiko’s in yellow/black, Sakura’s in pink & Kato’s in black. This is in a really puny gymnasium with everything super lit up, so it’s “house show” city here.

The rookies double-team Maiko to start, sandwiching her between them and doing jobber-fu, but eventually Akira’s in with her spinkick and sharpshooter, just casually taking Kato apart. Sakura runs in and boots and bites at her while she’s torturing Kato, but Hokuto defiantly taunts her and no-sells it. Maiko in with more generic stuff after Hokuto takes out both girls, and after ages of basic stretching, Sakura tags in and does much better with running stuff. Hokuto back in with a huge backdrop suplex, then steps off her at “2” to whip her around into guardrails and such. Maiko with the atomic drop, but Sakura lands on her for two off the second thanks to Kato’s trip. Akira directs traffic but missile kicks her own partner, then Kato actually snags her with her Torture Rack, then Sakura flies out with the FLYING ASS~~, knocking Hokuto over! Akira clotheslines them both over but actually has to tag out, and they wisely work over Sakura’s ass to take away her greatest weapon, and Maiko pins her with the Saito Suplex at (11:17 shown).

Rating: *1/2 (very basic, “Lazy House Show Match” with some fun bits of Hokuto crushing weaklings and Sakura USING THE ASS)

SAKURA HIROTA, RINA ISHII & HIROMI KATO (GAEA Japan) vs. NANA FUJIMURA, AYA KOYAMA & MIHO KAWASAKI (Big Japan):
(June 19th 1997)
* hahah, good lord! BIG JAPAN of all companies had a women’s division! Mostly known for its deathmatches, Big Japan was Indie Sleaze personified from everything I’ve seen. It now sends its rookies (whom I’ve never seen before) to wrestle GAEA’s most minor recurring wrestlers. Sakura’s in pink, Rina’s in orange, Kato’s in black, Nana’s in black (but with armbands!), Toyama’s in floral-printed white & Miho’s in baggy red pants and a white t-shirt.

Big Japan triple-teams Sakura with dropkicks for two, but GAEA fires off three corner attacks for two on Nana, then everyone goes into rookie-fu with lots of running dropkicks & flash pins, going all-out with effort. Rina does a cartwheel back elbow (pretty advanced for her level) on Koyama, but gets kicked by Nana trying another and a slingshot back elbow gets two. Sakura USES THE ASS on Nana, but gets backdrop suplexed and dropped on her ass for two. Miho with a clothesline and the crowd seems to mark out for the ref just DIVING into position and counting, but Sakura hits a leglock and Kato a dramatic STF until it’s finally broken up. Rina’s flying splash gets two but Miho does judo flip spam for the same. Nana & Rina go for hooking clotheslines, but Rina does her Manam Roll takedown again and Sakura lands the FLYING ASS~~ for two. Kato’s missile kick puts Nana into Koyama, who takes back body drops and the Torture Rack from Kato. They triple-team her for two, but she counters Rina’s rana with a powerbomb for two. Rina’s flash-pins nearly get her, but Nana pushes them over for a CLOSE two-count and the crowd is getting impressed. Koyama whips Rina off the ropes to finish, but this time the rana hits her for three at (9:40).

Oh man, you can totally tell this was planned well ahead of time. I mean Mike Lorefice says so, but I like to think I would have been able to tell- these are 2nd year wrestlers and yet it’s fought all-out with none of that “okay, what do I do next…?” rookie stuff, and has all sorts of big reversal spots and momentum-shifts planned out.

Rating: **1/2 (the Flair/Steamboat of green-ass rookie matches)

CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. SAKURA HIROTA & HIROMI KATO:
* Oh man, it’s the boss versus who two lowest-tier trainees- Sakura & Kato! Chigusa actually looks pensive before the bout, almost like she doesn’t wanna go through with murdering these two rookies whose checks might not have even cleared yet. Or maybe it’s parental sorrow, I dunno. Actually they just joined OZ Academy last show so Chigusa’s probably just sorrowful she lost two trainees to that devilish scumbag, and now has to murder them. Sakura’s in pink & Kato’s in black.

The rookies pounce Chigusa to start, Sakura throwing out ass-attacks so fast Chigusa can’t counter her easily. Funny bit as Chigusa trips them both to stop a whip, but they do the same to her, only for her to just walk away from a double-dropkick. So Chigusa just punts them both when they’re down and murders Sakura with a powerbomb with shades of Devil’s earlier MDK bomb and pins her (0:54), then lariats Kato for the hell of it.

Rating: 1/4* (scarcely even a match, but funny)