Joshi Spotlight: Hotta/Toyota/Takako vs. Kyoko/Las Cachorras Orientales

Hey, remember when I said the GAEA show I just did was the last Joshi thing of 1998! Well I found an un-dated match and looked it up, and sure enough it’s from that December too, lol. So have a Friday Spotlight based around one match! Also I found the full version of the WWWA/LLPW Double Title Unification match from early 1998 so I’ll include that here!

YUMIKO HOTTA, MANAMI TOYOTA & TAKAKO INOUE (AJW) vs. KYOKO INOUE & LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) (Neo):
(JD’ Together Women’s All-Star, Dec. 8th 1998)
* Because Joshi, I found an un-dated match that’s actually highly-regarded and from a late 1998 JD’ show. And it features Zenjo’s Big Three against the “traitors” who weren’t getting paid and formed Neo Ladies! Kyoko’s in purple, Mita’s in white, Shimoda’s in red, Hotta’s in black, Toyota’s in red & Takako’s in light purple.

Things get heated straight away with Double Inoue EXPLODING as Kyoko & Takako meet up to start and Kyoko gestures to Takako’s partners and completely disregarding her old pal, just tossing her and brawling with Hotta, the woman who took the 3WA Title from her. And then LCO charges and they take out the partners and lay a three-woman beating on Hotta! Team AJW lashes out and does the same and now they’re all fighting outside the ring in a very epic version of what’s usually a routine spot, featuring multiple momentum-shifts and Shimoda chasing Toyota around the ring until she runs into Hotta, and Mima gets launched into the chairs. Clipped to Toyota’s Running No-Hands Springboard countering Shimoda & Kyoko, and she dropkick spams Kyoko and Kyoko/Takako go at it. Takako gives as good as she gets, firing Kyoko off the top rope, but she gets wasted by three lariats and goes completely dead-weight, getting dragged out of the ring so Manami can charge in- Manami gets Ligerbombed out of a Manami Roll, but immediately gets the move next try in one of the most lightning-fast versions I’ve ever seen (Kyoko is an INCREDIBLE base for that move). But she backflips off a lariat bump and has to avoid Shimoda’s Tiger Suplex, going into a rolling cradle as things get a bit clunkier. Shimoda reverses the Japanese Ocean Cyclone for two, but Toyota gets a dive onto Team Neo.

A Moonsault gets two on Shimoda as Takako is helped on the outside, and another JOCS is reversed and Manami charges into Mita’s Blazing Chop and gets Ax Kicked for two. Shimoda attempts her Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) but THAT allows Manami to finally hit her finish, as she sneaks behind on the top and lands the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex, and Kyoko draws MEGA HEAT (!!) for kicking Toyota’s bridging leg out. Kyoko cheats to hamper Hotta, but Mita makes the cardinal error of pointing to her head to indicate intelligence after ducking an enzuigiri and of course gets immediately kicked in the head. Mita hits the Blazing Chop but her DVD keeps getting countered and Hotta’s Tiger Driver gets two. But Shimoda interfers and the Ax Kick/Death Valley Driver combo… gets two as Toyota leaps in! Kyoko’s like “Ima hit my finisher” but Toyota takes her head off with a missile kick, only for Team Neo to overwhelm them- Kyoko nails Team AJW with lariats and LCO do their dives, leading to a Niagara Driver on Hotta for a CLOSE 2. Takako gets laid on the apron and is still dead.

Hotta sweeps Kyoko into a cross-armbreaker and Toyota takes out LCO, then waits for them to get in position (with the AJW kids holding LCO for her insane missile dropkick to the floor) while Hotta lands the Pyramid Driver (cross-armed ligerbomb) for two! Hotta moves for the Caribbean Splash (cross-armed super german) but gets knocked off, only to “Samoa Joe” out of a dropkick and cross-armbreaker Kyoko- Shimoda breaks it up but gets her ass kicked while Toyota & Mita scrap on the floor, and when Kyoko hits a powerbomb, Hotta threads it right into a triangle choke and Kyoko has to be saved again. But then Toyota avoids a powerbomb only to run into Mita’s DVD and Kyoko hits the Niagara Driver aaaaaaaaaand TAKAKO comes to life and saves with perfect timing and the crowd explodes! But BAM! Kyoko knocks her out with another lariat, LCO covers the other girls, and Kyoko hits her Super MDK, the Victoria Driver (inverted fireman’s carry powerbomb) for the pin at (11:18 of 19:26 shown) and the crowd goes nuts. Kyoko talks some shit on the mic afterwards and IT’S ON- Zenjo’s entire squadron of ring girls hits the ring and Neo’s girls do too and it’s a mass pullapart brawl.

Oh man, this match… this is like the wild Zenjo Tags of old. Tons of false-finishes, Finisher Escalation, great death-sells, people flying in from all angles, etc. I wish it wasn’t clipped down. You had great stuff like Kyoko hitting a move and immediately getting her head missile kicked off from an off-camera Manami, the constant interference, Takako dying on the floor before FINALLY coming in for a last-ditch save, and more. The “you’re traitors to Zenjo!” angle seems to be a thing here, and even KYOKO, the most babyfaced of all babyfaces, leans into it and starts acting like a shit, and the constant interference and Takako’s injury make them look like brutes. The vitriol before and after really pays off as well, and makes you think this AJW/Neo feud is going to go somewhere (I’m not sure if it does, haha). But all in all, this felt like a lot of past-their-prime wrestlers wanted to hit their peak for JUST ONE NIGHT and went all-out enough to nearly make it happen. There was a bit of clunkiness in there (usually with Toyota/Shimoda bits), but that was all.

Rating: ***3/4 (one of the better matches of a pretty weak year for joshi)

DOUBLE TITLE SUBMISSIONS MATCH:
WWWA WORLD TITLE & LLPW TITLE:
YUMIKO HOTTA (AJW) vs. SHINOBU KANDORI (LLPW):
(LLPW, Feb. 21st 1998)
* So the only thing I can find for AJW for the first part of 1998 is THIS- to shake up slow ticket sales and a decimated roster, they let rival company LLPW book a TITLE VS. TITLE MATCH for the first time ever, pitting their Champion, Hotta the Super-Shooter, up against Kandori, the LEGIT actual shooter from LLPW. Sadly, it’s only a clipped version as far as I can tell. Kandori’s in that funny orange & yellow bodysuit with the shorts and the dyed-blonde hair (a look she kept for the rest of time), and Hotta’s in a black outfit of similar make.

They go Shoot-Style to start, immediately fighting to the floor, then Hotta gives Kandori that “kick them while they’re down” move and Kandori is PISSED. They eat treat flash-submissions like they’re deadly and Hotta fishes for a kimura, but Kandori ends up with a rear mount, where she slaps her to be an asshole. She fishes for a choke, but Hotta pushes her off just using her head, then spikes her with a trio of headbutts that immediately busts her open hardway. Kandori, from the ground, fights for a cross-armbreaker that draws some drama, and Hotta gets the ropes and demands Kandori fire away at her! Kandori messes her up with headbutts and running kicks while Hotta does her “come at me bro” stance with the crimson mask and boy she does know how to make memorable moments, huh? Kandori levels her with a clothesline but the ref waves off her pin attempt, letting Hotta twist up her arm and Kandori has to fight up, letting Hotta toss her to the corner and hit her Rolling Kick! She lights up Kandori’s guard with kicks, resulting in an “8” count, but Kandori suddenly springs to life in a fighting stance and charges her, then hits a DDT! Choke! But Hotta kicks her in the head to get out, and when Kandori tries the clothesline again, Hotta catches her arm and tries for the Tiger Driver, but Kandori blocks and then blocks a second rolling kick, turning it into a leglock!

In a great bit, Kandori tries a Tiger Driver of her own, but it was a FAKE OUT and she slaps on a Fujiwara armbar instead! But the next time Hotta tries a clothesline, Kandori DOES catch her with a Tiger Driver (the clipped version of the match makes the former attempt this move, cutting out the between stuff), and transitions to the cross-armbreaker (cuz no pins)! Kandori’s grapple-defense is excellent, as she repeatedly pops her hips to take the pressure off, then gets the leg for the leghold, but Hotta just gets to her feet and punts her, then WIPES her with a big straight kick to the side of the head! Kandori’s up at “8” but still wobbly and unsteady, so a tired-out Hotta fires off what she can to bring her back down- another sweep kick to the head!

Kandori crumples to her face to sell it, and is again up at “8” and Hotta, now given a breather, pounces again- she keeps going to the knee, however, and Kandori catches her (on a second try) and fires off E.Honda’s Hundred-Hand Slap! Hotta, her momentum crushed, slowly gets up and Kandori immediately latches on a choke, but gets rushed to the corner- Rolling Kick #2! Hotta knows it’s her chance, so fires off a cross-armed piledriver (probably going for a Pyramid Driver but slipped back too far) and a regular Ligerbomb… holding it for too long cuz there’s no pinfalls! She’s like “oh fuck- right” and tries to slip out of the pinning combination, but she’s right in position- Kandori slaps on the TRIANGLE CHOKE, and Hotta struggles against the mat for a second (actually not really moving) while Kandori has to to all this twisting and turning to put over the effort… and Hotta taps!! SHINOBU KANDORI IS WWWA CHAMPION (12:02)!! The crowd FREAKS, and immediately goes into a “KAN-DOH-RI!” chant as Kandori stomps around reveling in her victory.

This was GREAT- it was clipped to a short match on the first one I saw, but they immediately hooked people by going for early submission wins and Hotta splitting herself open for an iconic image, and that made all the latter stuff better. The stuff they clipped out makes for a longer, better match, too- it’s less of a sprint and comes off more careful, especially paying off prior stuff. I ended up impressed by how Kandori could just twist and roll out of EVERYTHING, repeatedly stopping Hotta’s attempts at submissions, but end up having to weather her storm of kicks- Hotta’s submission work was less effective but she was still the better STRIKER, and that paid off as she kept gaining the lead with that, taking every opening she could. The finish was a bit funny, as they already did the “oh right- pins don’t count” thing, but as Hotta’s big moves all end up in pinning combinations, I can buy that it’s a trained automatic thing- it costs her big-time, though the triangle choke is an iffy way to end a match given how you can’t see the face of the person taking it, and Hotta didn’t even sell pain so much as acting like it was a KO until the tap (though as a blood choke it allegedly should be like this as a sell- my “Pro Wrestling Sense” still sez it’s off, lol). Incredible match- NOTHING was wasted and every move felt desperately important and like it could potentially win the match.

Rating: **** (incredible match- bloody, stiff and strategic)

So yes, almost immediately after the “ZAP” team comes in and shakes up the entire roster (adopting two rookies as goons to give us more match set-ups and diversify the roster), we get the World Title shift, as an LLPW wrestler (and one of joshi’s biggest, most credible stars at this point), Shinobu Kandori, becomes the World Champion of the promotion! The Kandori Era is long and… not terribly liked, but I know she has a great match with Manami half a year down the line at least.