Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in June 1998
By Jabroniville on 19 February 2024
GAEA JAPAN IN JUNE:
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan (cuz they have the most stuff on YouTube, lol)! This batch of matches comes from June 1998. This show features the first round of a tournament to declare the #1 contenders for the AAAW Tag Team Titles! This is a big deal, in part because the tag belts are now switching from a “Junior” title for younger wrestlers to one for EVERYBODY, as we have veterans like KAORU & Yamada in there against Meiko & Kato, the top First Class members of the GAEA roster.
#1 CONTENDER FOR THE TAG TITLES TOURNAMENT:
ROUND 1:
MEIKO SATOMURA & SONOKO KATO vs. KAORU & TOSHIYO YAMADA:
(June 13th)
* This is interesting, because while Meiko & Kato are former champions, they’re Third Years going up against veterans in KAORU & Yamada. Meiko’s in red & gold, Kato’s in blue, Yamada’s in yellow and black & KAORU’s in white, and we’re joined in progress.
Meiko tries to wear down KAORU, and takes a lot of shots at Yamada, who typically avoids them- Yamada avoids a double-team German and kicks Meiko in the face, then Meiko & KAORU scrap again (there’s an interesting bit where they throw mirrored low-kicks and both sell the shins a bit). Kato does a kip-up into a Bridging German for two, but KAORU rolls over with a Fujiwara armbar until Meiko finally gets past Yamada and breaks it up. The kids finally double-team Yamada and hit their fireman’s/frog splash combo for two, but Meiko gets dangerous backdropped right onto her neck. Everyone’s very much in “house show mode” here, with no real story developing- they’re just making comebacks and run-ins at random. Kato hits a running bulldog to stop Yamada’s Finisher That Never Hits, Yamada gets an enzuigiri for two, and Kato cannonballs her partner.
Meiko reverses The Finisher That Never Hits for a really bad slow-motion victory roll and ends up in a weak stretch muffler, and KAORU springboard stomps her back and puts on the liontamer- Kato saves. KAORU avoids submission counters and does a torture rack of all things (??), then gets missile kicked trying a Brainbuster, completing the move later but Kato instead Guillotine Legdropping the back of her head. Yamada clears Kato out with her spinkick reversal and KAORU hits the Brainbuster/Springboard Moonsault combo… “Fuck YOU!” bridge by Meiko! The crowd seems to appreciate that one- Yamada is tricked into Flying Enzuigiri-ing KAORU, leading to Kato’s cannonball into Meiko’s DVD attempt, but KAORU flips out onto her feet and Kato accidentally nails Meiko, leading to KAORU trying a Michinoku Driver… and getting hurricanrana’d for the pin at (9:54 of 16:42 shown)! A surprise win by the youths!
Man I dunno who put this match together, but they did a really bad job. Very much slowly-paced but mixed in with a million bits of interference, so it didn’t look as manic as it should have in situations like that. It also came off as very herky-jerky, like people were running in at random and no serious finishers were taking place. The ending minute or so was decent, at least, telling the story of a lot of run-ins leading to a flurry of four people in there all at once, and a one-off lucky reversal scores the pin for the underdogs.
Rating: **1/4 (just a House Show Match extended into a slightly more dramatic struggle at the end)
CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. SAKURA HIROTA:
(June 21st)
* It’s the boss up against Sakura again. Sakura’s in pink with a frilly skirt and Chigusa’s in black & red.
Sakura tries to clothesline Chigusa before the bell, but the boss won’t sell and easily knocks her down. Sakura manages to avoid her and USES THE ASS to put Chigusa on the floor, but tries an ass attack off the apron and Chigusa catches her in mid-air and backdrops her. Back in, Sakura bites away to avoid a powerbomb in a comedy spot, Sakura misses whatever her slingshot attack was gonna be, but manages to backfist Chigusa while sitting on the top turnbuckle. A sleeper and some flying attacks get two. Chigusa clotheslines her out of another ass attack, but Sakura bootrakes her from the top rope and rolls back to avoid a backfist, getting her own and taking the lead again. Chigusa finally catches her and hits a wheel kick for two, and a Spinning Ligerbomb gets the same. Sakura makes ANOTHER comeback, but Chigusa weathers her storm of “backfists” and Ligerbombs her again for the pin at (4:46).
Another day, another sloppy Sakura match. The fans seem to dig her comedy stuff at least, and she’s leaning more and more on that and away from “serious wrestler with any chance”. As her offense is feather-light and she frequently misses ENTIRELY, or forgets what she’s going to do, it’s probably for the best (and has resulted in a 25-year career).
Rating: * (just the usual sloppy filler from Sakura, with more comedy bits and “jesus, what’s it take to beat this dumb kid?” smirks from Chigusa)
KAORU & MEIKO SATOMURA vs. TOSHIYO YAMADA & SONOKO KATO:
(June 21st)
* It’s a rematch from the earlier one! I… oh wait, never mind- they just swapped partners! So it’s rookie/vet on each side. Everyone’s in the same gear as before but KAORU, who’s in purple/silver.
Kato jumps Meiko to start, beating her ass and hitting the slingshot cannonball to the floor (landing right on her head in the process). Meiko escapes a front facelock and KAORU dominates Kato with stuff, including her “MMA lite” offense, and Meiko’s back in to work the leg for a while. Kato finally bulldogs out and Yamada is in after 7 minutes of action. Yamada kicks Meiko around, taking a NASTY elbow to the face before hitting the snap suplex. Legdrop & stretch muffler continue the work, the latter going on for a solid minute, but Meiko finally escapes and KAORU goes back to work on Kato’s knee. She demands Yamada tag in, but Kato charges her instead, earning a backdrop driver. Yamada finally gets in and is more evenly matched, getting her face kick and beating on KAORU with other stuff like a double-team hold-up-for-Kato’s-2nd-rope-legdrop thing for two. Meiko holds Yamada for KAORU’s superduperplex for two, but Kato stops the Brainbuster and even a Springboard- she manages a perfect plex for two, then escapes so Meiko hits her windmill charge… but Yamada chases her on the way back for a second one and lariats her.
haha- POW!
Yamada just flat-out BLASTS Meiko with a kick to the jaw that looks like it hit legit, then backdrops her onto her head twice to be extra CTE about it. Meiko bridges out, then twice escapes The Finisher That Never Hits, then eats ANOTHER face kick for two. Yamada finally gets tired of working the brain and tags out, and the vets start cheating, resulting in Kato cannonballing KAORU and Meiko landing on her feet from Kato’s German, only for Yamada to ensure its completion for two. Really kicking up the potential finishes, here- KAORU springboards to stop the Dragon Suplex finisher, then literally has to pull Meiko to the corner to try and force her to tag, but Yamada stops her. Meiko gets a BIG German but over-rotates so she can’t bridge, and KAORU springboard dropkicks Kato to set up the DVD, but Kato counters for a near-fall… and ends up in the Cross-Armbreaker! Yamada stops it with a kick but ends up Michinoku Drivered by KAORU so Meiko can hit the Death Valley Driver… Yamada still saves! The vets are done, so Meiko goes for her hurricanrana finish from the prior match, only for Kato to over-roll on her… and gets the pin (17:16)! Kato & Yamada win!
This start out very solid and “AJW Style” with the deliberate work in the early half, focusing on working limbs, and it was really quite good, and set up the back half of “Upgrading Finishers”. I liked that it wasn’t just a lot of spam and finisher-killing (the GAEA kids were getting bad for that), and had a minimum of KAORU (who has sucked at psychology and selling for a WHILE now), and had the veterans run a lot of interference. Yamada looked good and precise in her bits, but Kato & Meiko were trying super-hard and it got pretty good. Especially for a 17-minute match, which can often have a lot of filler.
Rating: ***1/2 (one of the better GAEA matches of late)
#1 CONTENDER FOR THE TAG TITLES TOURNAMENT:
ROUND 1:
CHIGUSA NAGAYO & SAKURA HIROTA (GAEA) vs. AJA KONG & MAYUMI OZAKI (ARSION & Freelancer):
(June 27th)
* haha okay, Chigusa picked SAKURA as her partner in the Tag Tournament? Way to take it seriously, boss. I guess if it’s a “I want to give my trainees the best possible challenge!” that’s okay. Aja & Ozaki are an interpromotional superteam at this point, being top stars. Chigusa & Sakura are in their earlier gear, Ozaki’s in red/black and Aja’s in blue/black. The short runtime of this video makes me think “GAEA Sprint”.
The veterans make a show out of dissing Sakura’s attempts at handshakes, then Aja starts with Chigusa- clotheslines see neither selling, and YUP- Aja quickly hits an Uraken for two. She follows with a Death Valley Driver and moves out of the way on Sakura’s flying stomp so she splats her partner instead, but Sakura does her “Uraken Matrix dodge” on the top and pops Aja in the jaw to set up CHIGUSA’S DVD for two. Sakura comes in but her slingshot ass attack is countered to a German & Oz cannonballs her, and they reverse Tequila Sunrises on each other until Sakura uses the uraken… and Aja stomps in and brains her with the oil can. Sakura dodges another uraken from Ozaki, but Chigusa lets her hit it and a rollup gets two.
Chigusa comes in but takes the Tequila Sunrise (tiger/dragon suplex) for two, then Ozaki fucks up a Manami Roll and tags out- Aja hits a Brainbuster & sleeper, broken up by Sakura after such a persistent effort she has to use the Flying Ass to stop it. Aja climbs and eats a superplex for two, then tries another Uraken and gets trapped in an armlock- Oz has to save. Chigusa backdrop drivers Oz and tags out, but Sakura attempts a 2nd-rope Uraken, misses, and Chigusa has to hold Aja for her- three urakens hit, but a fourth nails Chigusa and Aja hits a Brainbuster- Chigusa barely saves. 2nd-Rope Splash and Chigusa saves again (literally carrying Ozaki over for the break when she tries to interfere). Ozaki finally urakens Chigusa and holds her down so Aja can hit one last Uraken to win at (7:09). And man does Ozaki have the flu? She was barely in this!
haha what the hell was this? A standard-issue GAEA Sprint (about the best way to use Sakura at this point), but with “uraken spam” being the theme, as Aja hits her finisher early, then EVERYONE starts whipping them out (Oz & Sakura by this point had adopted it, too- I get the point since it’s a simple-yet-effective move but only Aja’s ever looked good and definitive). So you can tell a little mini-story about that. But these matches are just so packed with stuff that a lot of potentially interesting things get glossed over cuz there’s another big move or interesting spot 20 seconds later, you barely see some people (Aja did all the big bits so Ozaki was just an extra), and it risks finisher-killing when they throw out all their best shit and have to rely on hitting a finisher on a rookie for the pin.
Rating: **1/2 (these are never BAD but there’s a ceiling with them)
CHIGUSA NAGAYO & MEIKO SATOMURA vs. OZ ACADEMY (Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato):
(June 28th)
* Finally, we have the next night’s show, with OZ Academy taking on “Chigusa’s Army” yet again.
Chigusa hits a wheel kick on Ozaki to start, then clotheslines both opponents down during a double-team, then Meiko & Sugar scrap and trade shots. Meiko gets backdropped to the floor but manages a nice body blow punch and a European uppercut, then Chigusa misses her wheel kick and takes a dragon screw. Ozaki cannonballs Sugar by mistake and can’t get the Tequila Sunrise, but spams backfist strikes for two, only to get caught and ligerbombed trying a rana. Backdrop suplex/flying clothesline nail Ozaki, and Meiko already hits the Death Valley Driver for two! Ozaki escapes another and hits her uraken into the kneeling powerbomb for two, but Chigusa interferes and OZ Academy hit STEREO Ligerbombs on them! Meiko kicks out, then catches a flying Sugar with the cross-armbreaker for a struggle. They scrap again (Sugar looking precise but Meiko somewhat overwrought and out of position)- they counter finishers but Sugar gets two urakens for two. Meiko is dead on the mat but escapes a powerbomb with an ax kick & Northern Lights suplex for two- Ozaki saves. Sugar avoids a double-team and tags out so Ozaki hits a rana for two, then Ligerbombs Chigusa for the same. Meiko stops the Tequila Sunrise so Chigusa hits the Kneeling Powerbomb for two. The Razor’s Edge fails and they try flash-pins on each other, then Sugar hits an uraken but her powerbomb is countered with a rolling elbow and Ozaki flips over Chisuga right into Meiko’s European uppercut, and it’s STEREO Death Valley Drivers on OZ Academy for the pin on Sugar at (8:43)!
ANOTHER GAEA Sprint, this time with… well a lot of uraken spam as well, and Ozaki again being in way less often than her partner, though at least was in there more than last time. I did like the Stereo Ligerbombs being followed up by the Stereo DVDs, especially as the latter was the FINISH and so it wasn’t just BeamSpam. Sugar looked good and Meiko looked like her typical combo of “tries super hard/is too tryhard”, while Ozaki was pretty loose and sloppy with a lot of stuff.
Rating: **1/4 (another good old-fashioned GAEA Sprint)
So I guess June was “Month of the Urakens” because HOLY SHIT there were like 100 in this compilation for the month. Aja has it as a finisher of course, but Ozaki adopted it even though hers suck, and she often spams them out. Sugar mimics her and does the same thing, and now SAKURA has adopted it as a go-to reversal strike. The latter three all spam it out repeatedly to the point where matches just turn into uraken-fests and I don’t really like to see a move turned “generic” like that.
Also, it’s the typical GAEA issue of a month’s worth of content finding FOUR Meiko Satomura matches, three by Chigusa, and other multiples- it’s hard to avoid when you have a promotion of less than 20 people, but it gets tiresome seeing the same old spots and moves, especially once the “GAEA Sprint” gets more common and every match is now just a flood of movez with no down periods or dramatic story.