Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan’s 4th Anniversary Show (GAEA vs. SSU)

GAEA JAPAN 4th ANNIVERSARY SHOW- GAEA vs. SSU:
(April 4th 1999)
* So the GAEA vs. Super Star Unit feud reaches a head four months into the year, as months of wild brawls and SSU wreaking havoc and pulling out wins leads to this! The opening clip is actually the opening festivities, with SSU coming out one by one in blue shirts, and GAEA’s loyalists coming out in GAEA shirts. As T-shirt based loyalties being the most indefatigable trope in wrestling during the ’90s, this rules. As SSU has MASSIVE starpower compared to GAEA, this will be rough going for the loyalists. But dig Chigusa’s “blonde hairdye of evil”! She’s ready to fight SSU on their own level!

GAEA Roster: Chigusa Nagayo, Toshiyo Yamada, KAORU, (First Class) Meiko Satomura, Sonoko Kato, Toshie Uematsu, (Second Class) Makie Numao, Sakura Hirota, Rina Ishii, Mizuki Ishii
SSU Roster: Mayumi Ozaki, Aja Kong, Lioness Asuka, Las Cachorras Orientales (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita), (First Class) Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima, (FMW) Kaori Nakayama

3vs3 SURVIVAL SINGLE (GAUNTLET) MATCH:
GAEA JAPAN (Toshie Uematsu, Sakura Hirota & RIE) vs. SUPER STAR UNIT/OZ ACADEMY (Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagshima & Kaori Nakayama):
* So it’s a “Survival Single Match” (ie. a Gauntlet Match), with two GAEA loyalists and FMW’s RIE (Bad Nurse Nakamura) against the GAEA students who betrayed GAEA for Mayumi Ozaki back in the day, plus Nakayama from FMW. GAEA using “Kickstart My Heart”, a ten-year old song, for the highlight reel for the wrestlers is pretty funny. Toshie’s in new gear- a bulky black top with green skirt (with gold designs that make her look like Anna from “Frozen” cosplay), Sakura’s in pink/white & RIE’s in a red top & athletic shorts. Sugar’s in white, Chikayo’s in yellow/white & Kaori’s in rose-gold genie pants with a black top.

We start off with Sugar vs. Uematsu- they go slow & steady, carefully getting into things, and doing lots of hair-pulling and getting annoyed. The slow pace makes for some WEIRD set-ups, like Toshie awkwardly sitting down to roll Sugar over for a cradle, or Sugar hoisting Toshie into a shoulder-lift to drop her on the top rope. Toshie gets a missile kick but can’t get her Northern Lights suplex, gets dragon screwed off the top, but gets a NICE bridging German for two. Sugar eats for missile kicks for a dramatic kickout, but Sugar works the leg and hits an Oklahoma stampede into her flying back elbow for two. They reverse on each other for a bit until Toshie pulls out the VICTORY STAR DROP, flipping Sugar backwards off the top, but Sugar re-rolls her into a bridge for a HUGE nearfall! Toshie with the Goo Punch into the NL Suplex for another one! Toshie throws punch after punch, but Sugar ducks her and hits the Uraken for another close one, and Toshie tries the NL suplex off the TOP, instead eating a big ThunderFire Powerbomb for a kickout. The crowd is screaming at every kickout they’re doing, which is a great sign and a testament to how they’ve built this. Toshie with a snap German and a missile kick to the back of the head sets up a double-down and a “fight up from the ground” spot, and they’re dangerously close to losing the peak until they just start flinging punches at each other and boom!- Sugar misses an uraken but lands a big Ligerbomb for the pin at (13:47)!

Sugar, probably wiped, has to deal with RIE, who nails a German & Flying Enzuiknee and Sugar has to get her feet on the ropes. Sugar desperately avoids more pins off of flying knees and such, getting a desperation uraken from the ground, eats another NL suplex, a Tiger Driver, and an elbow, but fires back with an uraken/TF Powerbomb combo for two. RIE manages a rana (they get caught up on the mat), but Sugar nails her with three straight dragon screws into the Ligerbomb for the pin at (2:41 of 7:14 shown)! She pulls one out despite the cardio!

Next up is Sakura Hirota, a comedy wrestler doing a fan gimmick this time around. But Sugar pounces immediately and goes for the early KO off an uraken, but Sakura keeps fighting, reversing two more to flash-pins like with a rana, and a third rollup during her double-arm submission gets the pin at (2:38), Sakura marking out!

Sakura, pretty fresh, now takes on Nakayama. They settle into a long, basic match, Sakura USING THE ASS and some taunts, the a missile kick & her double-arm submission, but Nakayama fires off her Exploder and a flying forearm. Sakura comes back with the Flying Ass and her top-rope dodge, but misses her flying uraken and completes it after avoiding a moonsault. Nakayama with some floatover DDTs, Sakura with a punch, and Nakayama with a super rana for two. Nakayama does a good backslide, but Sakura counters another flash pin to her own for three at (9:21).

Sakura now takes on Chikayo to end it! Chikayo quickly crushes her with a German & Flying Stomp, but another… sees RIE & Toshie hit the ring to break it up! Chikayo’s like “WTF?” as this rapidly turns into a 3-on-3 scrap, and she splashes onto her own team. Sakura hits the Flying Ass for two, but gets German’d and Stomped again, but rolls up Chikayo out of her Fisherman’s Buster. RIE’s flying knee sets up Sakura’s Half-Nelson Suplex for two, then a straightjacket German and a Half-Nelson SUPERPLEX, getting two. Crowd was wowed by that one, but SSU comes in for a ton of flying stomps to set up a dramatic near-fall off a German. Chikayo dodges four punches in a row in a great bit, Sakura tricking her into ducking early and tagging her, but Chikayo quickly fights her into the Fisherman’s Buster, pinning her at (6:17). Super Star Unit wins!

See, Sugar/Toshie was funny because they were slow and lazy as hell for the first 2/3, then of course rev it up in the end and the crowd is eating out the palm of their hands for all those kickouts because they’ve established multiple attempts at their finishers so they SHOULD be getting the pin off these, right? RIE didn’t get much of her thing filmed, but it seemed fine and a decent “last few minutes” owing to Sugar’s state. Sugar/Sakura was about what you’d expect- sloppy rollups and “FIGHTING SPIRIT” spots in lieu of good offense, but it worked. Sugar/Toshie was probably ***1/4-1/2, the others were around *-** affairs due to the abridged times (or presence of Sakura). It was funny seeing the last one turn into All Cheating, but the GAEA/SSU feud is supposed to be hateful so I get it. Chikayo didn’t get to show as much because Sakura is limited and sloppy, so they just kept spamming the same couple moves repeatedly by the end.

Rating: *** (overall a fun match- peaks and valleys with some weak Sakura offense but a good overall story)

LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. KAORU & TOSHIYO YAMADA:
* Chigusa’s two experienced loyalists take on the hateful heel duo LCO (Mita was of course Yamada’s partner in their teens). KAORU’s in purple, Yamada’s in black/yellow, Shimoda’s in black/red and Mita’s in black/yellow. On paper the GAEA team shouldn’t have much of a chance.

This actually starts against type, with Team GAEA launching LCO into the stands immediately, but as always that’s a transition spot and LCO start tossing KAORU around in the ring by the hair and choking her, then send their opponents into the stands for a beatdown. The young women in the crowd marking out for LCO is a delight, as is the group giving Shimoda the thumbs down and flipping her off when she chokes KAORU on the ramp. This leads to more beatings for KAORU in the ring, and we’re clipped to LCO dumping them and hitting their assisted tope con hilo/dive combo (Yamada is now bleeding from nothing we could see) into more beatings, but when they try the chairpile & Guardrail Drop… up come Team GAEA, who bowls them over and hits THEM with the guardrail, Yamada making sure to be like “HEY LOOK AT THIS AND CHEER!” beforehand! KAORU hits two brainbusters on a chair on Shimoda and reveals a GORY bladejob of her own, then a Michinoku Driver- Mita saves. This is like 9 minutes in and they have 20 minutes of match to go, WTF? Shimoda gets a powerbomb to counter a rana and hits her double-hooking clothesline and a Tiger Suplex, mostly fine after all these big moves.

The crowd informing Shimoda of their opinion of her.

Mita immediately takes Shimoda’s chairshot and a brainbuster sets up… KAORU botching a moonsault springboard, so she settles for another Michinoku Driver for two. Various double-team attempts go poorly, and finally Mita stops a Flying Spinkick by smashing Yamada’s leg with a chair. Shimoda missile kicks a chair into Yamada and the ref as this is just turning into glorious chaos, and the ref is too late for the spinkick/Gory Bomb! Mita hits the DVD out of another, but Yamada does the GAEA No-Sell and kicks her head off for two, screams at the kickout, and ends up taking two straight DVDs- KAORU saves. Shimoda tries to play mop-up but gets killed and a Moonsault gets two, but everyone nails their own partners by mistake and Shimoda capitalizes with the Ax Kick– another save! And it’s the Death Lake Driver (tiger suplerplex)… for two! Everyone’s tired and just doing “heft them” suplexes, and KAORU tries a big springboard moonsault onto the ramp but only hits Yamada. This leads to ANOTHER crowd brawl from LCO, and Mita ends it with the DVD ON THE RAMP to kill KAORU. Then it’s a chair-stack into the Guardrail Drop out there (!), then the ref fights them from trying it again in the ring and they drop HER with the guardrail this time, and of course there’s no count for Shimoda’s Ax Kick. They’ve spent like 3-4 minutes just casually walking around the ring to rebuild their cardio, lol.

A DVD/Somersault Ax Kick is a sure finish, but the ref is so slow Mita batters her and she’s out cold! This goes on so long KAORU recovers, but she moonsaults a chair and an ax kick/DL Driver blasts her- Yamada saves. She counters another DL Driver for two, but kicks out after an Ax Kick/DVD, then recovers enough to hit Germans and climbs 9-10 feet up a truss at ringside to moonsault onto LCO from there! Yamada cannonballs them, and when Shimoda tries a comeback they batter her with kick after kick until KAORU hits three straight Michinoku Drivers to FINALLY pin her at (27:08 of 38:27 shown). Yes, that was nearly FORTY MINUTES LONG. An annoyed looking LCO just skulk off with some dirty looks as KAORU & Yamada embrace as great heroes, having beaten the invading LCO- LCO would repeat this in every promotion you can think of for ages, making BIG money.

Okay this was WILD. But also a complete spotfest with almost no big selling at all… in that people were “selling death”, but it was that death-sell where they just kept popping up for more moves. Which can be great, except they started doing that 5 minutes in and were still doing it 24 minutes in, turning the match into a giant collection of huge spots with no flow to it. Like it was a bloodbath only minutes in, then we had the big guardrail drop spots, Shimoda eats some finishers on a chair, but then they just keep fighting and then it’s more finisher trading at the midpoint, and then we do big moves into our third crowd brawl of the match into some obvious resting as they slowwwwwwly set up two guardrail drops (crowd-fights are also used to conserve cardio). So there’s a ton of great spots throughout, even as the execution of moves suffers (everyone was getting sloppy and just doing the “flop backwards and kinda toss them” suplex). Never mind KAORU being hit with like 10 DVDs over the course of the match, with one on the damn ramp being 10 minutes before the finish. Or the sheer number of all their other finishers used- it kind of kills the notion of these moves to have people kicking out of them after all this insanity- usually they use rope-breaks or people breaking up the pins more often. Also it seems like everyone here just ran out of moves that they knew so they just kept repeating them, haha.

Rating: ***1/4 (a total spotfest with tons of chaotic spots, but sloppy execution and endless kickouts turned it into meaningless Beamspam at points)

SUPER STAR UNIT (Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki) vs. GAEA JAPAN (Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato):
* So once again the primary GAEA defending kids end up having to face a main event squad, this time the two most savage and heartless of the invaders. Pretty sure I’ve already seen this exact combination more than once, but it’s a BIG SHOW now. Aja debuts a new navy blue/black look here, while Ozaki’s in red/black, Kato’s in blue & Meiko’s in red, as usual. Meiko’s hair is totally wild, now- I think this was a style thing in the era.

Fun start, as Meiko’s like “you will respect me!” to Aja, who contemptuously just drives through both kids with a double-lariat. And so it goes- Meiko keeps trying for comebacks, but the vets just find them amusing, hitting her with Germans, lariats, mountain bombs, etc., giving her NOTHING. Aja crushes her out of her windmill elbow and hits a 2nd-rope splash, then wipes out Kato . Even double-teams go nowhere, as Ozaki flying stomps her injured leg and they make fun of her desperate limping. Meiko tries to stop a backdrop driver, but Aja just ignores her kicks and does it anyways. Ozaki stomps away at the leg, but being smaller she’s easier to beat, so Meiko cheats to help Kato hit a dragon suplex for two. And then Aja just brains her with the oil can, lol. They hit an uraken/powerbomb as Meiko’s just scooting around the apron impatiently, then when she flies in to stop Ozaki after a powerbomb, Oz MOVES and Meiko crushes Kato with a stomp off the top! Ozaki just hits a ligerbomb to great amusement, Meiko having to shove over the pin. This is horrifically one-sided and I love it- the kids keep trying and trying, but SSU heads them off every single time- Oz emphasizes this by ending another comeback with repeated backfists and Kato’s a corpse, and then a hot tag is cut off with a beating in the stands and on the ramp. Ozaki keeps trying to find an “iconic” move to do out there, and settles for a powerbomb, but Aja one-ups her with a giant “runs down the ramp for a lariat” charge.

Meiko limps weakly to the corner, but when Aja arrogantly superplexes Ozaki onto Kato, Kato dodges and Meiko splashes in. But Aja quickly stops THAT comeback, leading to massive ass-over-teakettle bumps from Aja’s lariats- I’m loving how she’s taking her time with those and building them up, making the crowd “Ahhh!” for the bumps. Kato cheats to set up the DVD, but Aja just pops out after “1” and just crushes a frustrated Meiko again. Kato has to run in, a stereo DVD/Bull’s Poseidon spot just has the vets do the GAEA NO-SELL to wow the crowd, and this just looks impossible- dual brainbusters just seal the deal, though Meiko bridges out of a casual Aja pin. Aja’s uraken is blocked, but she easily blocks the Pele kick, only to end up in the Sunset Flip Bomb reversal off the top. Aja’s finally selling, and has to swat Meiko down and desperately try to pin her. But she gets careless and ends up in the GAEA MDK SLEEPER, which was put over last month, and the crowd goes BANANA. Kato lampreying onto Oz to prevent a break puts over the move further, and Aja takes a full minute & a half to get the ropes. There’s a DVD on the weakened giant, and Ozaki does the “teleport from offscreen” save! Aja is dazed & clumsy, but able to trick Kato into nailing Meiko, but Meiko ducks several Ozaki urakens, which hits AJA, and BAM! Pele kick into a DVD! And Meiko pulls Aja away while Kato hangs onto Ozaki again and PINS AJA KONG after a second Death Valley Driver! MEIKO WINS (17:19)! The crowd goes nuts and even Meiko is like “THREE!?! DID I FINALLY DO IT!?” to the ref. A dazed, confused Aja finally gets up to her feet, then pops up with an Uraken to kill Meiko dead, robbing her some of the joy of victory, but Kato’s like “She still got three!”. Aja’s angry screams are perfect as she dives into a melee with a defiant kid and it’s a pullapart brawl. SSU is like “Dude, come on” but Aja’s completely beside herself, putting the win over even more.

Utterly fantastic example of “Monster Heel” stuff, as Aja leads the entire match and the heels treat the kids with obnoxious contempt, ignoring every bit of offense they throw, all leading to that come-from-behind victory. I mean it’s 20 solid minutes of “lol I no-sell you”, the heels easily avoiding moves, preventing even basic cheating, tricking the kids into harming each other off of pin-breaks, and beating on them outside the ring and on the ramp- like Roddy Piper at his most selfish, gobbling up the opposition and giving them NOTHING. And yet they kept shaking it up and beating on different people and frustrating the fans in different ways, and then with perfect timing they pull off the sleeper spot, which has been carefully built in past weeks as a potential Aja-slayer. And sure enough, Aja can break in the ropes but is badly hobbled and dazed by it, allowing Meiko to catch her repeatedly. Aja gets the best of her for a tiny bit but two Ozaki backfists have her completely on her ass and Meiko gets put over big-time with her first big pin ever on a major star. It’s funny because “good back and forth match” kinda became the “shitty reviewer’s go-to remark” as people seem to lionize 50/50 matches, but this proves you can have a MOTYC with a 90/10 one as well, playing up the veterans’ power, mercilessness and intelligence onto to pull the rug out from under them thanks to kiddie persistence and pluck.

Rating: ****1/4 (a great come from behind win- fairly simple in terms of moves but they had a lot of great spots and a fantastic overall story)

And yet the experienced viewer in me just realized that it’s been three GAEA wins and zero SSU wins. And now it’s the main event.

WINNER BECOMES BOOKER OF GAEA JAPAN:
CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. LIONESS ASUKA:
* Oh yes- “O Fortuna” is played as we see clips of how the rivalry began- Lioness comes into a GAEA ring and instead of siding with her old friend and tag partner, she walks past her and joins the vicious Super Star Unit, setting off a mass brawl. And the hate gets so extreme that only a match for the rulership of GAEA will do. Chigusa comes out draped in a GAEA banner while Lioness just grumpily saunters in with a badass robe and this FEELS like a main event. Chigusa’s a bit washed/injured at this time, but Asuka’s the best wrestler in joshi at the moment.

They wisely do it carefully to start, doing simple grappling, but Asuka wows people by snagging the Scorpion Deathlock- a Crush standby- good & early…. then immediately grabs a chair like a total asshole! But Chigusa grabs it, tosses it out, then puts HER in the move! Their “you fuckin’…” death-glares are PERFECT. They do a LONG set-up with mind games into a double-knucklelock, Lioness hitting a blue thunder bomb, but Chigusa counters a suplex with a wheel kick. Lioness is able to smash her a bunch, but can’t get the Giant Swing and gets caught up top with a belly-to-belly superplex. But Lioness cheats again with a chair and powerbombs Chigusa off the apron through a table at ringside! Then she rips off a fragment and donks Chigusa with it and tries to decapitate her with the sharp edge. A bleeding Chigusa is dragged to the ramp for a dramatic slugfest and Lioness bounces off the ropes for a big lariat, then climbs the lighting rig for some terrifying footstomps onto a table (slipping the first time and going down vertically- that could have gone HORRIBLY wrong). She then hits an Iconoclasm onto a massive pile of chairs and is aggrieved that the ref refuses to count a pin off that.

So Lioness just hits a Ligerbomb to get a count but Chigusa does the GAEA No-Sell… only she’s stumbling and dying on her feet and Lioness just wipes her out with a wheel kick for 2.9, tossing the ref around and putting the boots to Chigusa. In comes a table, and SSU drags the ref away to prevent the attack, but with picture-perfect timing, Chigusa catches Lioness up top and hits a Razor’s Edge ONTO the table, Asuka putting a huge dent in it! Asuka does her own GAEA No-Sell after a powerbomb, but just stumbles over to the corner and gets caught in ANOTHER Razor’s Edge- Chigusa’s running version, but Chigusa slumps down so it looks bad and she holds a “stitch” in her side to probably play that off. Lioness kicks out at the last second and they counter each other until Chigusa hits a DVD for two. Chigusa climbs for some godforsaken reason and gets caught with the Towerhacker Bomb (inverted fireman’s carry ligerbomb), but the fans don’t bite for the nearfall that hard. SSU sets up the table-drape in the corner and Aja bludgeons the ref with an oil can to stop her interference, meaning there’s no count when Chigusa Germans Asuka off it, and when she tries to capitalize, Lioness uses a GODDAMN FIREBALL right in her face, and hits the Towerhacker Bomb for the three from a bloodied, dead ref at (16:59)- Lioness Asuka now controls GAEA Japan. A sore winner, she gets in Chigusa’s face and celebrates while GAEA’s president just leans into his hands and can’t believe this shit. SSU celebrate with the literal books of ownership and stomp off.

So while the LCO match was raw chaos is their typical match, but with no real match schematic, and the vets/kids match was a 90/10 come-from-behind great one, this one was pure smoke & mirrors, but the BEST KIND, Asuka & Chigusa going into everything slowly and carefully, countering basic stuff and being in character. So while there were a tenth the moves of the LCO match and similar amounts of weapons & blood, it ended up a much better contest. I mean, you could see the strings throughout- relying on slow builds, weapons, big spots, and more to cover for a lack of well-executed big moves, but of course you need more than MOVEZ to be a good match, and this one built every spot- Chigusa gets some good shit, but then goes through a table. Then is bloodied with it and stomped into another one, but finally comes back with her own, Lioness being hoist by her own petard by over-relying on it. This lets Chigusa hit her finisher for a nearfall, but Lioness fights dirty again and again, pulling out the rarest form of cheating in all the ’90s joshi I’ve seen with flash paper and that believably stuns a weakened Chigusa to the point where another Towerhacker Bomb finishes her.

Rating: ***3/4 (great use of building spots, character and counters)

The GAEA loyalists now cry the tears of unfathomable sadness, and even Chigusa sobs into her towel, bowing to the fans.

In one last bit, SSU celebrates and laughs at the GAEA President guy. This is gonna shock you, but Mima Shimoda is really good at being an ungracious shit about winning.

So now we enter a new era of GAEA Japan, with villainous heel Lioness Asuka & Super Star Unit controlling the company, on the very same show where GAEA’s loyalists scored big win after big win- Sakura, KAORU, Yamada, Meiko & Kato all got huge wins over SSU, in particular turning Meiko into a “legit” wrestler at last despite the last-second win, but now Asuka dominates them all.